OBSERVERThe Weekly

Volume 14 | Issue 18 Tuesday, January 27, 2015

BRIEFS

Karnataka receives more Haj applications in 2014

Karnataka State Haj Commit-tee recorded an increase of pilgrims performing Haj by 10% in the past three years.Page 2

2 minor girls rescued after CCB busts ‘brothel’

Five girls from Bangladesh, including two minors, have been rescued from a house run as an alleged brothel in Bangalore.Page 2

Night shelter turned to a community hall

A nationwide scheme to pro-vide shelter for homeless people is failing in Karnataka, with homeless people back on the streets and their ‘shel-ters’ converted to marriage halls.Page 3

All work and no ‘pay’ for city sweepers

Pourakarmikas across Ban-galore are being denied their wages by the state govern-ment and the contractors.

The contractors are also guilty of violating the Mini-mum Wages Act along with not providing any safety equipment like gloves or boots. Street sweepers in Bangalore are called poura-karmikas.Page 3

Karnataka fails to curb teen-age pregnancy

“I got married when I was just 17 and at the age of 20 I have three children. I am facing a lot of health problems like depression and low weight. Also my third child is suffer-ing from lot of complications as he is premature,” said Sa-jia from a slum near D.J. Halli police station.Page 4

Leopard on the loose; gives birth to 3 cubs

The leopard which has been troubling Kumbalgodu has given birth to three cubs, ac-cording to villagers.Page 4

Eviction threat 30 years after ‘legal’ land deal

Eviction notices have been served on an entire community 30 years after the Bangalore Development Authority gave them permission to move in.

The Revenue Department, which issued the notices to hun-dreds of stunned homeowners, has also threatened legal action against the “encroachers”.

Puzzled residents, some of whom have lived on the dried up lake area for 30 years, have legal documents to prove they were al-located the land by the BDA. No-body from that organization was consulted ahead of eviction notices being sent out, some to pensioners living alone.

Earlier this month, claiming their homes were on a lake bed, around 150 residents of the HRBR Layout were sent eviction notices from the Revenue Department.

The notice also asked the resi-dents to explain why criminal charg-es should not be slapped against them for land encroachment and why they should not be asked to evict the land.

According to Deputy Commis-sioner, Revenue Department, Shan-kar, “Survey no. 211 comprises of 42 acres of the land in HRBR Lay-out. BDA formed layout on 14 acres and 3 acres has been encroached by unauthorized people.”

According to residents of HRBR layout, Kalyan Nagar, they have submitted the required docu-ments to the Tahsildar of Bangalore North which states that the sites were allotted by BDA to the public and that they have been paying taxes too.

Of the 180 sites allocated by BDA, except for about 40, everyone has been given an eviction notice.

DS Rajshekhar, president, Ban-galore North East Residents Welfare Association, said, “No objections were raised when the occupants oc-cupied the land and built the house. After so many years, they are talk-ing about the land being present on a lake bed. We haven’t seen any lake here in the last thirty years.”

“There are homes on about 12 acres of the land here. The land sites were acquired procedurally as per BDA policy but still residents are being blamed for encroachment of the land. If that was not supposed to be given for layout, BDA should be questioned, we do not know the boundaries of the land which ac-cording to Revenue Department is illegal for living on,” he added.

The people who have residences on this land are mostly middle-class people with no other property and all of a sudden they were sent out notices on January 3 to leave their lands.

According to the residents, there could have been a breached tank bed in this place. Along with homes, on the same area, a bus stand, a fire sta-tion, a post office and a playground. However the residents are doubtful whether these laws apply to such civic amenities.

According to Rajshekhar, the AT Ramaswamy Committee and Task Force Balasubramanyam Re-ports state that no lakes were pres-ent in the area.

The residents also claim that the BDA has not at all intervened in this act of the Revenue Department when it is something that should be of their concern since the land was

allotted to the public by BDA.R S Subbuaih, 45, who has been

staying in this location for the past 11 years, said, “We have submitted the essential documents and we know we are on the right side, but still we have been called ‘encroach-ers of the land’.”

Sampath Kumar, 52, another res-ident said: “The land here was filled and allotted by the BDA, but now we are being called the encroachers. It is under the administration of the Tahsildar, Accountant and the Dep-uty Commissioner to verify details before BDA allots land.

“There was no objection 30 years back, now they want us to leave our homes. Residents are be-ing blamed, not BDA,” he added.

According to Murthy, 65, they are being blamed for illegally occu-pying the land. “If we had illegally occupied, how do we have these legal documents which prove oth-erwise? The Revenue Dept has not given any details about which tank had been here and when. There are residents who have lived here for about 30 years,” he added.

“There are allocated sites where nothing has been built by the own-ers. They haven’t got any notices. We also want to know on what ba-sis does the Revenue Department wants a section of the people here to leave their sites,” asked Murthy.

The Deputy Commissioner, Shankar added: “We are looking into the issue. Of the 14 acres of the land which was used by BDA to build layout, people having legal papers of having bought the land from BDA won’t have a problem. Eviction would happen if we find encroachers having taken the land illegally.”

CM Subbaiah, President of Ka-lyan Nagar RWA, said, “There are

222 sites allocated under Survey no. 211 by the BDA. The civic ameni-ties like police station, fire station, bus terminal and post office have not been given notices of criminal offense and encroachment, only sites occupied by residents. Why so? These are many of the questions which need answers.”

According to him, the Revenue Dept had claimed that the entire 42.38 acres of land is on a lake bed.

“There are 46 sites in the city which have been built over lakes or lake beds. Many such lakes were en-croached upon by the BDA to built layouts and give away sites. Why only for this site, is this much noise being made?” he added.

Rajshekhar added: “The whole scenario is threatening our existence here. There are numerous senior citizens living in the area who have nowhere to go.”

“We bought land from a govt agency in a hope that there won’t be any loopholes like those involved with private agencies but this situ-ation has proved the government isn’t any better,” he continued.

Shruti Suresh

CM Subbaiah, the president of Kalyan Nagar RWA

Rajshekhar is one of the residents who got an eviction notice

“The land here was filled and allotted by the BDA, but now we are being called the encroachers. It is under the admin-istration of the Tahsil-dar, Accountant and the Deputy Commissioner to verify details before

BDA allots land.”

2 The Weekly OBSERVER Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Haj pilgrims endure annual state lottery for ticketsLess than a third of Karnataka based Muslims who apply to go on Haj pilgrimage are given a ticket.

According to the data provided by the Karnataka State Haj Com-mittee, 15,492 people had applied to perform Haj in 2012. The number increased to 17,182 in 2014. Last year, Karnataka State Haj Commit-tee was allotted 4,977 seats. In 2013 it was allotted 5,672 seats and in 2012 only 4,142 seats were given.

The number of people who could actually perform Haj depends largely on the chit system and on-line draws. Abbas Sharieff, Execu-tive Officer at Karnataka State Haj Committee said, “The committee picks up chits that decide the Hajees for that year. Recently, we started the online draw system that picks up people according to the reserved categories.

“Haj Committee of India re-ceives three lakh applications ev-ery year. Saudi Arabia government has fixed a quota for every Muslim country to send only lakh or any number of Haj pilgrims close to it every year. In India itself, govern-ment and private tour operators have different quotas,” he added.

“The Haj quota system is di-vided between private tours and the government in India. Private tour operators normally had a quota of 45,000 till 2012 but the government reduced it to 34,005 in 2013. This quota is shorter than what is actually required,” said Alhaj Shafi Ahmed, proprietor of Seair Haj Tours and Travels which is regularised by the Ministry of External Affairs for quota system.

In June 2013, Saudi Arabia gov-ernment announced a 20 percent

cut in the Haj quota on foreign Haj pilgrims.

Private or GovernmentIn 2002, Government of In-

dia introduced the Haj Committee Act to establish a Haj Committee of India and State Haj Commit-tees for making arrangements for the pilgrimage of Muslims for Haj. The government of India funds the committee and provides air fare subsidies for the applicants of Haj.

Guidelines for Haj 2015 provid-ed in the booklet of Haj Committee of India state that Haj Committee of India is committed to monitor the facilities made available to pil-grims. However, these facilities do not include food arrangements.

Each pilgrim who performs Haj through the Haj Committee of In-dia is entitled to only four square meters space with a mattress and a pillow. Also, the pilgrims have to share room, kitchen, toilets and washroom facilities with other pil-grims at Mecca and Madina. On the other hand, pilgrims are provided private accommodation and food if they choose private tour operators.

“We had decent arrangements of stay and we had to cook our own

food. Haj is very precious for every Muslim. We don’t perform it be-cause we have to; we do it because we want to. Because of this attitude living conditions at Mecca do not bother many,” said Zarina Khan, 55, who performed Haj through the Haj Committee of India in 2012.

Shoaib Sheikh, 40, another Hajee praised the private tours. “Though many hope for perform-ing Haj through the Haj commit-tee due to cheap rates, private tour operators provide comfort through the month long stay.”

Haj and UmrahAs stated in the guidelines

booklet provided by the Haj Com-mittee of India, Haj is a compulsory duty of every Muslim who has the resources to perform it once in his lifetime. Though, Umrah can be performed at anytime of the year.

Sarfaraz Shaikh, 58, performed Umrah with his family in May 2014. His wife’s parents had applied for Haj through the Karnataka State Haj Committee, but they ended up performing Umrah because they were not selected in the quota and they did not want to wait for an-other year.

Shaikh said, “People generally opt for government quota for per-forming Haj. They believe that it is safer and more than that the rates of the tour are quite reasonable. The remaining lot is rejected or can apply next year.”

“My family and I opted for Umrah due to time constraints as my wife’s parents were rejected un-der the quota system last year,” he added.

Whereas, private tour operators provide a full package right from the time one applies for Haj. “Our packages start from India from different embarkation points and ends after one comes back to In-dia. Everything including passport, registration with the Saudi embassy, food, hotel and transportation is

taken care of by us,” said Alhaj.Normally private tour operators

also provide 15 day short Haj tours. “Businessmen or people from the service industry cannot afford to travel for 40 days and hence, opt for shorter tours,” he added.

In 2014, Haj Committee of In-dia was allotted a quota of 1, 00, 020 seats. Out of these 99,914 pro-ceeded to perform Haj. 33 Haj pil-grims from India died due to natural causes last year and 7 of them were from Karnataka.

2 minor girls rescued after CCB busts ‘brothel’Five girls from Bangladesh, in-cluding two minors, have been rescued from a house run as an alleged brothel in Bangalore.

Three Bangladeshi nationals were arrested by City Crime Branch and three men have been charged with human trafficking.

Responding to a tip off from NGO Talaash, CCB made a raid on

a three storey building within KR Puram Police Station limits.

Police arrested Habeeb Sheikh, Torikar Islam , Ruman Mondal who are 46, 25 and 20-years-old respec-tively.

A FIR was lodged in KR Puram Police Station CR no 49/15.

Charges levied against the men are sections 3,4,5 and 7 of the ITP Act 1956 ,IPC 370, r/w 14 of For-eigners Act 1946 and section 12 of Passport Act. The landlord has been booked too.

The charges include keeping or managing or assisting a ‘brothel’ as per mentioned in the Immoral Traf-fic (Prevention) Act, living on the earnings of sexual exploitation and recruiting and harboring the act of prostitution and doing so within a distance of 200 meters of public space or buildings such as school, hospital, educational institutions, etc.

As per IPC 370 they are charged for detaining any person against the will of the person.

As per Foreigners Act 1946, it deals with the contravention of the act.

Section 12 of the Passport Act is charged with the failure of fur-nishing or withholding information

regarding a valid passport.The NGO was tracking Habeeb

Sheikh based on information given by a minor girl who was rescued re-cently. She had also been trafficked from Bangladesh.

The NGO declined to com-ment further on sourcing of their information.

Kimaya Varude

33 Haj pilgrims from India died due to natural causes last year and 7 of them were from Karnataka

Karnataka State Haj Committee recieves 3 lakh applications every year, says Abbas Shareif

Sarfaraz Shaikh feels that pri-vate tour operators are a better option for Haj

Soumya Chatterjee

The victims rescued by City Crime Branch from K R Puram

The three Bangladeshi nationals who were arrested

What is Haj?Haj is the greatest Muslim pilgrimage and all the physi-cally fit Muslim adults who can afford it are expected to perform Haj once in their lifetime. It is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Subsidies for Haj pilgrims in IndiaIn 1974, the government of India asked the Haj pilgrims to travel to Mecca only by air and travelling by sea was banned. Now, the govern-ment provides air fare subsi-dy to every Haj pilgrim from India.

A nationwide scheme to provide shelter for homeless people is failing in Karnataka, with home-less people back on the streets and their 'shelters' converted to marriage halls.

The city corporation turned a night shelter into a community hall for marriages and officially shut down at least two of the 13 night shelters in the city. There are sup-posed to be 70 shelters across the state for homeless people.

The night shelter situated at Shivajinagar was shut down in April, 2014 and at least 50 people were evicted. The Bruhat Bangalore Ma-hanagar Palike is earning money by renting that building for marriages and parties.

The rent of the party hall is Rs 12,000 for a day and Rs15,000 for a night.

Ahmed, a tea shop owner, said. “A total of 100 people used to live

here but now this place is being used for marriages and parties. Now the BBMP is earning from the place. They shut it down because there was nobody to fund it.”

Kala, headmistress of the gov-ernment school adjacent to the place, said, “The night shelter was shut down 6-7 months ago. The government just asked these people to leave without any notice. There were 20-25 ladies among them too.”

Apart from this, the municipal corporation has stopped funding other night shelters situated in J.C. Road and Bommasandra.

The Supreme Court, in 2011, or-dered Karnataka government along with other states to build night shel-ters for the urban homeless. The BBMP was ordered to build night shelter homes and provide them with dinner, water, brush and tooth-paste. They were funded with an amount of Rs. 50,000 per month.

A survey by the Indo Global

Social Service Society, IGSSS, found that there were 17,400 homeless people in Bangalore. The BBMP had to build at least 70 homes by 2013 to provide shelter to all these people but only 13 were built by 2013.

The Indo Global Social Ser-vice Society is a nationwide NGO founded in 1960’s and is now based in 25 states of the country. The IG-SSS works for development, capac-ity building and enlightenment of the vulnerable communities across the country.

They are based in Benson town in Bangalore and look after various childcare and shelter homes in the city. They arrange camps for health checkups and have various urban poverty reduction programs.

P.V. Nayak, a social worker with the IGSSS, said: “We used to look after the night shelter home in J.C. Road but we have withdrawn support since the month of June. The BBMP did not pay us for two months of our service. They used to pay us around Rs 12,000 per month.”

He added, “We complained also but there was no reply, so we had to withdraw the support there.”

Yesu, who had been appointed to look after the shelter, said, “I used to get paid until the month of June but now I am working here out of my own will. I lock the doors in the morning and open them for these people at night. I cannot do more than that since I am working as a coolie now.

“This shelter home has been of-ficially shut down as per the letters provided by the BBMP. We have complained to the BBMP several

times but they never acknowledge it. I have a copy of the letter sent to the Mayor by the Chief Minis-ter himself to take care of this is-sue. I have copies of other letters signed by the welfare department complaining to the Mayor about the funds as well,” he added.

Swamee, a resident who works under marriage contractors, said: “Since the IGSSS has withdrawn support, we have huge problems here. They used to provide us brush, toothpaste, soap and water. Nobody comes to clean the floor or the toi-lets. Three workers were appointed to take care of us but now nobody is here.”

“We get water once a week. And the bed sheets and mattress have not been changed since three years. We have to adjust with whatever available,” he added.

Boregowda, also a resident of

the night shelter home in J.C. Road, 62, said, “The main issue is water here. There is no water in the toilets. We have to pay ourselves and get water from tankers. Even drinking water is not provided.”

Murthy, a coolie from Kolar dis-trict, said, “Even the police officers used to come periodically to check upon our safety earlier. Health checkups were organized for all the people living in the shelter but it has all stopped since April-June.”

Shiv Kumar, Assistant Com-missioner of Social Welfare, BBMP, said: “We were funding the NGO’s till October but we are having prob-lems now. The Shivajinagar shelter home was shut down due to com-plaints by the locals in the area. We are trying to look into the problems in J.C Road and other areas. I have spoken to the Mayor’s office.”

From shelter homes to street, as BBMP mints moneyApoorva Choubey

The community hall in Shivajinagar which was previously a shelter

Bassapa, a resident of the night shelter home, is from Bellary

All work and no ‘pay’ for city sweepersStreet sweepers in the city have not been paid for months accord-ing to a human rights lawyer.

The contractors are also guilty of violating the Minimum Wages Act along with not providing any safety equipment like gloves or boots. Street sweepers in Bangalore are called pourakarmikas.

Dr. Yathish Kumar, Joint Health Commissioner, Bruhat Bangaluru Mahanagara Palike said, “All the pourakarmikas employed under BBMP are being paid regularly. The companies who hire pourakarmi-kas on contract basis are not being paid.”

A salary of pourakarmika who is working for BBMP is 9,600. With dearness allowances and provident funds it adds up to 14, 670. But The Weekly Observer found that even BBMP is guilty of violating the Minimum Wages Act. Bhagyalaxmi, who works for BBMP in Vijaynagar, said ,“My wages are due for the last three months. I get a basic pay of Rs 5,500.”

She added, “I haven’t been able to pay rent for the last couple of months and the owner might throw

us out any moment.”Clifton D’Rozario, an advocate

who has been fighting for the rights of the pourakarmikas in Bangalore said, “The pourakarmikas work 365 days a year. They are the only people who have to work without any holi-days because the dirt has to be lifted, the garbage has to be cleared.”

Clifton added, “If someone dies and they go for the funeral, salary is cut. If their children get married and they don’t come for work, salary is cut. If they fall unwell and don’t go to work, salary is cut. It’s as op-pressive as that.”

Sumitra, a pourakarmika who works with BVG India highlighted the same problem. She said, “The moment we take a leave our salary is cut. We get around Rs 4,000 but our wages have been pending for the last three months now. Even on Republic Day we were working. I have no faith in BBMP.”

According to the Contract La-bour Act, 1970 BBMP can inter-vene if the contractor is not paying the salaries and recover the amount from the contractor.

Dr. Yathish Kumar said, “The BBMP can interfere as we are the

principal employer. But considering the numbers we are talking here and the whole waste management issue it’s very difficult. It’s not just Ban-galore; all the metropolitan cities are facing the same problem.”

Sumitra, like her fellow poura-karmika doesn’t have a clue as to the minimum wage they are entitled to receive. As per the Minimum Wages act, a pourakarmika should earn Rs 8,500 with a basic salary of Rs 6,500. But according to Clifton most of the pourakarmikas end up earn-ing between RS 4,000 to Rs 5,000 which is a violatin of the Minimum

Wages act.“Contractors like Gopinath

Reddy, Balasubramaniam, Srinivas Reddy, BVG lndia pay just Rs 5,000. Some weren’t able to pay their rents and were thrown out from their houses. But these things slip under the carpet,” Clifton added.

Last month the pourakarmikas held a rally where they addressed their problems to the Commission-er of BBMP. The Commissioner had reassured the pourakarmikas that BBMP would address all the problems.

Clifton said, “After the rally,

around 40 percent of wards are now getting their wages. But the arrears are still due. BVG still continues to pay Rs. 5,000 in all its wards.” Under section 21 of the Contractors La-bour Act, if the employer is not pay-ing the wages then BBMP should pay the pourakarmikas directly and recover the amount from the con-tractor.

Clifton said, “The Supreme Court had said that making some-one work and not paying him or her, amounts to forced labour. The labour contract system is forced la-bour. It’s a violation of the constitu-tion that happens every single day. It is done by all the authorities, con-tractors and society stands by doing nothing.”

“Under the Municipal Corpo-ration Act, the job of cleaning the streets falls under obligatory func-tions. You can’t outsource your obligatory function” he added.

But Dr. Yathish Kumar said, “If the BBMP doesn’t outsource the maintenance of garbage then the es-timated wage costs comes to around 1,706 crores. As of now the BBMP doesn’t have the required funds.”

Pourakarmirkas working without any safety equipment

Pulaha Ray

3The Weekly OBSERVER Tuesday, January 27, 2015

4 The Weekly OBSERVER Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Teenage pregnancy in Karnataka is higher than the national aver-age according to a study.

“At the age of 20, I have three children. I was married when I was just 16 and now I am facing a lot of health problems like backache, depression and low weight. Also my third child is suffering from health complications as he is premature,” said Sajia from a slum near D.J. Halli police station.

According to Vanitha Sahay Vani, a survey conducted in Banga-lore, 2012, states that teenage preg-nancy among women aged between 15-17 years are higher in Karnataka (17%) against the national average (16%).

However, the situation is worse for the women who became moth-ers outside marriage .

“I became pregnant at the age of 16 out of wedlock, my parents then sent me to a shelter home for unwed mothers for six months and after my delivery they took me back,” said Jasmine (name changed), a slum dweller at D.J. Halli.

“They sent my child to some adoption center and fixed my mar-riage and now I am a married moth-er of two children with health is-sues. My children are also not doing well because they are unhealthy and malnourished,” she added.

However, she said that she was lucky in some sense because she was not totally disowned by her family and was sent to shelter home for un-wed mothers for proper care and to hide from the society.

But there are many girls who don’t get this opportunity and they have to tackle both physical and so-cial problems.

According to Sister Electa, St. Michael’s Home/ Convent, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, We provide accommodation to the girls in need. Those who become pregnant before their marriage, we give them the shelter and medical facilities. Some-times they continue to live or leave after their delivery,” said “We give those children to adoption centers. Sometimes people also come here and adopt child from here only.

“Lack of proper sex-education and parental guidance often result in early pregnancy. Also factors like, child marriage, low literacy rate, cul-tural and family structure add more to risk,” said Dr. Padmini Prasanth, Family Planning Association of In-dia, Karnataka Branch.

“I think counseling in schools and colleges for adolescent children, pre-marital counseling, and preven-tion of child marriage will help in this,” she added.

According to a study by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sci-ences, 2012, 42 percent of women

in the age group of 20-24 were mar-ried before the legal age of marriage in Karnataka.

Among which 21 percent from rural areas and 11 percent from ur-ban areas bear child at young age.

However, there are people in society who believe that girls are meant to get marry early and bear as much child as the ‘God’ wish.

“I have seven daughters from my three wives among which two are married now. I married my eldest daughter at the age of 15 and the second one at the age of 17,” said Roshan Zamir, 40, an auto driver.

He added: “I believe girls should marry as early as possible because if they get young before marriage they would ruin family’s name by having affairs or eloping with any guy.”

Early pregnancy is a problem is all rubbish. There is nothing wrong in getting pregnant at early age af-

ter marriage. Pregnancy is a gift of God, and we should respect that and take as much as possible. My eldest daughter is 20 now and she is a mother of four children, so what’s wrong in that.”

According to Dr. Padmini, teen-age mothers and their children are at high risk. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like Chlamydia and HIV are the diseases that can infect the mother and the baby.

She added: “There are more concerns like, pregnancy induced hypertension and iron deficiency anemia. However, poor women are more prone to this as they are most malnourished and have the least opportunity for prenatal care. Also an emotional support from family to unwed mothers will reduce the problem by 50 percent because it’s not the girl’s fault; it’s our fault, so-ciety’s fault.”

OBSERVER TEAM: Editor - Suharika Rachavelpula, Chief Sub Editor - Soumya Chaterjee, Sub Editor - Apoorva Choubey, Pulaha Ray and Divya Kishore, News Editor - Kimaya Varude, News Desk - Agnivesh Harshan, Layout Head - Devdatta Sukhdev, Layout Desk - Shruti Suresh, Picture Editor - Aparna Singh

The leopard which has been troubling Kumbalgodu has given birth to three cubs, according to villagers.

Chandru, an auto wala, said, “I saw the leopard and its three cubs

near BGS School around 10 days ago. It was 1 o’clock in the after-noon.”

Shekhar, a resident of Gonipu-ra, said, “I was in a BMTC-229 D around a week ago. I, along with other passengers, saw the leopard and its cubs. It must have been be-

tween 6 to 7 pm.”Mangala, a worker in Golahalli,

said, “I saw the cubs and the leop-ard from the bus while returning home. This is about the safety of the people. Now the risk has in-creased since it has given birth to three cubs.”

The leopard has eaten several animals from the nearby villages in the past 10 days.

Basappa, a farmer in Gonipura, said: “The leopard came at 3:30 am in the night. We woke up when we heard the cows moving. The calf was tied to a post next to its mother. When we rushed outside we just saw the rope dangling and several drops of blood on the floor.”

Jnanadeva, his son who workes in Canara Bank, said, “I tried to fol-low it but the leopard was too fast. The workers in the farm found the remains of the calf next morning. I have complained to the forest de-partment but I don’t think they have taken any steps.”

Yeduappa, a farmer in Gonipura, said, “I found two dead dogs in my field in the past week. Several other farmers have also found dogs in the past month. The situation is getting

worse now that there are three cubs along with the leopard.”

The Weekly Observer had previ-ously reported about the leopard being spotted near Devagere and Golahalli. He ate another dog inside the school around 15 days ago.

The Forest Department has set up a cage in the school but the leop-ard hasn’t been caught yet.

Leopard on the loose spotted with 3 cubs

The farmer whose calf was taken by the leopard

The remains of the dog killed by the leopard inside BGS school

The shelter home for unwed mothers in Indira Nagar

Karnataka fails to prevent teenage pregnancy

Sajia,with her three sons at her doorstep in D.J.Halli slum area

Apoorva Choubey

Divya Kishore

“I was in a BMTC-229 D around a week ago. I, along with other pas-sengers, saw the leop-ard and its cubs. It must have been between 6 to

7 pm.”