DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Govt printed, then shelved its report on elephants: Count fell by 20% in 5 years Final report with Northeast numbers to be expected by June 2025: Govt JAY MAZOOMDAAR NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2 Benninger established the School of Planning at CEPT varsity along with BV Doshi EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PUNE, AHMEDABAD, OCT 2 RENOWNED AMERICANINDIAN architect and urban planner Christopher Benninger diedinPuneonWednesdayafter a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 81 and is survived by his wife Aneeta Gokhale-Benninger and a son. Ramprasad Akkisetti, founder and managing director of Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (CCBA), saidhesuccumbedtoalongbattle with cancer and “died peacefully” at 1.30 am on Wednesday. Aneeta, Executive Director and Professor of Sustainability, Center for Development Studies and Activities, said Benninger was “very honest” about his architecture and his work. “He arrived in India in 1968 as a Fulbright Scholar to work in the field of low-cost housing His work reflected his values and integrity in creation of space,” she said. Aneeta talked about CONTINUEDONPAGE2 EXPLAINED LAW FOOD SAFETY LAWS IN STATES PAGE 10 HUNDREDS OF copies of the Environment Ministry’s elephant census report — Status of Elephant in India 2022-23 — have been gathering dust since February this year. The government hasn’t released the report citingadelayinthecensusinthe Northeast. Thedatafromtheunreleased ELEPHANT NUMBERS IN INDIA (2012-2023) Landscapes 2012 2017 Central & Eastern 2,906 3,168 1,864 -41.2% Western Ghats report, reviewed by The Indian Express,showsa20percentdrop in the elephant population from five years ago, with the CentralIndianandEasternGhats even recording an alarming 41 per cent dip compared with 2017 estimates. Besides recording the dip in the elephant numbers, the unreleased report identifies “mushrooming developmental projects” such as “unmitigated mining and linear infrastructure 16,204 14,522 11,961 -17.6% Shivalik-Gangetic 1,637 2,096 2,062 -1.6% India (except NE) 20,747 19,825 15,887 -19.9% Northeast 9,239 10,139 9,866* NA * NE figures are extrapolated from 2017, count pending Data: MoEF/WII WestAsiaonedge,Indiacallsfor restraint,saysavoidIrantravel MEA: Important that conflict does not take wider regional dimension NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD AT LEAST 8 ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED IN CLASHES WITH HEZBOLLAH KHAMENEI HAD WARNED NASRALLAH OF ISRAEL PLOT SHUBHAJIT ROY ASTENSIONSsoaredacrossWest Asia after Iran’s missile barrage onIsraelwhichthreatenedretaliation,ExternalAffairsMinisterS Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington DC and India, while calling for “restraint by all concerned and protection ofcivilians”,advisedallitsnationals to “avoid all non-essential travel to Iran”. In a statement Wednesday “on the evolving situation in West Asia”, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “We are deeply concerned at the escalation of the security situation in West Asia and reiterate our call forrestraintbyallconcernedand protection of civilians.” “It is important that the conflictdoesn’ttakeawiderregional dimension and we urge that all issues be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy,” the Ministry said. The Indian statement came hours after Jaishankar met Blinken at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the US State Department. construction” as significant threats to the species. When contacted, the ministry said this is an interim report. The final report, including the estimation of elephants in theNortheast,isexpectedbythe end of June 2025, it said. The elephant census is conducted every five years by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an autonomous body under the ministry. The unreleased report, authoredbysevenscientistsand officials of the Dehradun-based WIIanditsnodalministryinNew Delhi,isthefirst-ever“scientific” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 15 Tax crackdown draws links between NGOs — in ‘cause’ and funding pattern I-T alleges foreign funding influenced NGOs to campaign against Adani and JSW projects RITU SARIN NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2 ■ Two NGOs pursued litigation “stalling economic and development”projectsof thecountry,including those of Adani Group and JSW. ■ Morethan75%fundingof four NGOs during a five-year period came from abroad, which is shaping their activities in India. ■ The president of one NGO is a shareholder of another. THESE ARE among the key allegations, mainly linking process and personnel, listed by the Income Tax Department following its crackdown on five major NGOs, including the country’s premier think tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and the multinational confederation Oxfam, according to an investigation by The Indian Express. TheI-Tprobewastriggeredby searches conducted on September 7, 2022, at the premises of Oxfam,CPR,EnvironicsTrust(ET), Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) and Care India Solution for Sustainable Development (CISSD). CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘ALLEGATION BASELESS’ A KEY allegation by the I-T department that the five NGOs in its crackdown were linked in process and personnel are baseless, the founder of one of them, LIFE, said. “The allegation that all the NGOs were interlinked and interconnected is baseless. LIFE has never received any funds from Oxfam and never collaborated with CPR, Oxfam and Care India. There was only interaction with Environics Trust... LIFE is a voluntary organisation and is carrying out some of its activities now based on voluntary contributions,” said LIFE founder Ritwick Dutta. An official of Environics Trust declined to comment. The three other NGOs — Oxfam, CPR and CISSD — did not respond to requests for comment on the I-T department’s allegations. Jharkhand Hindu, Adivasi numbers declining, that of infiltrators up: PM External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during their meeting in Washington DC. PTI ABHISHEK ANGAD India’s worry: Long trade routes, high shipping rates, Corridor risks ACCUSING THE ruling JMM-led coalition in Jharkhand of engagingin“dangerousvote-bankpolitics”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the population of Hindus and Adivasis was declining (“ghat ti hui abadi”), while that of “Bangladeshi infiltrators” was rapidly increasing. Modi was addressing a rally RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2 previously anticipated, potentially keeping freight rates uncomfortably high. Thepotentialwideningof the conflict has increased the risk of trade disruptions, as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah shares close ties with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who ● are responsible for the majority of the attacks on ships traversing the Red Sea route. This assumes significance E AS THE conflict in West Asia enters a new and unstable phase, both global and Indian traders are bracing for a prolonged disruption in trade. The vital Red Sea shipping route may remain inaccessible to global shipping lines for a much longer duration than RG Kar case opens Pandora’s box, complaints pour in from Bengal’s key medical colleges RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ATRI MITRA KOLKATA, OCTOBER 2 THE RAPE and murder at Kolkata’sRGKarMedicalCollege and Hospital and its aftermath has triggered a series of complaints in some of the state’s top government medical colleges. From allegations of political nexus with the ruling establishmentandacultureof “threatand intimidation” to subversion of the examination system with 2022-23 Change JAISHANKAR HOLDS TALKS WITH BLINKEN, SULLIVAN EXPLAINED Christopher Benninger, Indian-American architect with Ahmedabad connect, dies at 81 `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 A rally by junior doctors for justice in the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case, in Kolkata on Wednesday. Partha Paul bribery and favouritism, students have flagged a series of irregularities in the administration, complaints accessed by The Indian Express show. Complaints made over the lastmonth,againstatleastseven of the state’s top 20 medical colleges, range from allegedly threatening to fail students who don’t toe the line, not registering studentswhorefusetopaybribe money to the West Bengal Medical Council, deliberately scoring students poorly during CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 for India as it relies heavily on this route through the Suez Canal for its trade with Europe, the US, Africa and West Asia, as theseregionsaccountedforover $400 billion in FY23, according to Crisil Ratings. RANCHI, OCTOBER 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi being presented a turban in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, on Wednesday. PTI Impact on India Exporters have long feared a direct conflict between Israel and Iran as it would mean a protracted disruption of the crucial CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE MUIZZU STARTS INDIA VISIT ON SUNDAY, PLANS BEING DRAWN UP FOR 3 CITIES RAILWAYS CHANGES TIMINGS OF 10 TRAINS TO PREVENT GIR LION DEATHS PAGES 13 & 7 New research shows why psychedelic drugs hold promise for treatment of anxiety and depression PAGE 1 ANCHOR KAUNAIN SHERIFF M NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2 PSYCHEDELICS,oftenlinkedwith counterculture and spiritual experiences,comewithrisksof dependenceandmisuse.However, there is growing scientific evidencethatthesedrugsmayhold promise in treating anxiety and depression,offeringnewhopeto patients who have struggled with traditional therapies. But the big question is how these substances actually work in the brain. A new study led by India’s top neuroscientist, Vidita A Vaidya, may offer some answers. Conducted at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, in collaboration with researchers from Cornell, Yale, and Columbia, the findingswererecentlypublished in the prestigious journal Neuron. These results bring scientists one step closer to understanding how psychedelics could help ease anxiety, poten- THE BRAIN PATHWAY Researchers used psychedelic called DOI in rats; DOI acts on brain receptor 5-HT2A Serotonin receptor that also decreases anxiety. Ventral hippocampus CA1/Subiculum (brainstructureinvolved region inmemory,stress& (partof anxietyresponse) hippocampus) Parvalbumin (PV) positive interneurons (foundinCA1region) Result: 5-HT2A receptors of PV-positive interneurons in CA1of ventral hippocampus act as a trigger for anxiety reduction. tially paving the way for new treatments in mental health. The researchers who conductedtheanimalstudydemonstrated a reduction in anxietylike symptoms due to the complex interaction between the psychedelic drug, the receptors, and the specific neurons in a specific location of the brain. How the drug works Serotonin is a chemical messengerthattransmitssignalsbetweennervecellsandinfluences mood, emotions, sleep, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad