eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE ‘Once you’ve had an unsafe childhood, you can’t trust safety’ AHMEDABAD,LATECITY AUGUST31,2025 18+4PAGES,`6.00 ARUNDHATI ROY DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA THE WORLD ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE KILLS HOUTHI REBEL PRIME MINISTER IN SANAA THREE DEAD DURING ANTI-GOVT PROTESTS IN INDONESIA; TEST OF SUBIANTO RULE PAGE 16 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT 40-MINUTE SLOT FOR TALKS ON SCO SUMMIT SIDELINES ABSOLUTE PANIC: OFFICIALS Hopefulof fruitful meeting,says Chinesediplomat; DelhiviewsChina militaryremarks asapositivesignal In Murshidabad and Malda, people fear NRC, deportation will follow ModiandXimeettodayasIndia,China movetorestoreties,onestepatatime In Bengal border districts, rush for birth certificates ahead of SIR National-level sprinter dies after SMC garbage truck EXPRESSATSCO hits her scooter SHUBHAJIT ROY TIANJIN, AUGUST 30 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SURAT, AUGUST 30 VIDHI KADAM, 19, a nationallevelsprinter,diedinaroadaccident after her two-wheeler was allegedly hit by a speeding garbage truck of the Surat Municipal Corporation on Saturday. The police arrested the garbage truck driver who held a learner’s driving licence on charge of reckless driving. Vidhi Kadam, a second-year B Com student at Sir K P Commerce College in Surat, was a resident of Panas in the city. Her father, Santoshbhai, is a tailor by profession, and her elder brother runs a food court. She participated in a nationallevel short-distance running event in January 2025. Vidhi, who also works as a trainer, was going to her gym in the Bhatar area when the twowheeler she was riding was hit byanSMCgarbagetruckcoming in the opposite direction. Vidhi, who sustained serious head injuries, was rushed to a nearby private hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The body was later sent to NewCivilHospital.Khaodarapolice lodged a complaint and initiated an investigation. After checking CCTV footage in the area, police arrested the driver, GirishVadh(22).Policesaidthey found a learner’s driver licence fromGirish,whowasworkingas contract staffer. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GUJARAT CONGRESS ALLEGES VOTE CHORI; BJP: PEDDLING LIES WITHOUT PROOF PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BEHIND INVESTMENT BY JAPAN, MESSAGE TO TRUMP PAGE 10 People line up at the Berhampore Municipality in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. Express PAGE13 Legal challenges cloud Zelenskyy speaks to Trump’s powers as PM, says India ready to India faces 50% tariff deliver signal to Russia RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 30 DIVYA A NEW DELHI, AUGUST 30 AS PRIME Minister Narendra Modi reached Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where he will be meeting, among other leaders, RussianPresidentVladimirPutin, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Modi and said “the end of this (Ukraine) war must begin with an immediate ceasefire” and “India is ready to make the necessary effortsandtodelivertheappropriate signal to Russia and other leaders” at the summit. Modi, in a post on X, thanked Informed (Modi) about talks with President Trump in Washington: Zelenskyy Zelenskyy for the phone call. “Weexchangedviewsontheongoing conflict, its humanitarian aspect, and efforts to restore CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DAYS AFTER the steep 50 per centUStariffsonIndiacameinto effect, a US appeals court on Fridayruledthatamajorityof US President Donald Trump’s tariffs derived from powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is illegal. The tariffs will, however, continue to remain in place untilOctober14,thecourtsaid,giving the Trump administration a window to appeal in the US Supreme Court. Reacting to the court order, Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social all tariffs CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 8 months after Carlsen row, FIDE breaks with tradition, allows players to wear jeans MUMBAI, AUGUST 30 IN A change from tradition, FIDE, the 101-year-old global governing body for chess, has eased its dress code and allowed players to wear “appropriate jeans” at the upcoming Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss tournaments. FIDE’s move comes eight months after Magnus Carlsen’s ‘jeans wear’ controversy, which saw the world’s greatest chess player of the current generation MURSHIDABAD, MALDA, AUGUST 30 AHEAD OF MODI’S TALKS WITH PUTIN PLAYERS CONSULTED: FIDE DEPUTY PRESIDENT VISWANATHAN ANAND AMIT KAMATH RAVIK BHATTACHARYA Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Tianjin, China, for the SCO summit on Saturday. PMOIndia quit the FIDE World Rapid Championship mid-way after being fined for wearing jeans. Carlsen, who said he quit the event as a “matter of principle”, latersoldthatparticularjeansfor Rs 31 lakh ($36,100) in an online auction on eBay. Carlsen is unlikely to play in theGrandSwissevent,tobeheld from September 3 to 16 in Samarkand,Uzbekistan,evenafter the change in dress code, but therevisedFIDErulesmeanother players will be allowed to wear “non-distressed jeans” in three colours: blue, black, and grey. X/@MagnusCarlsen Last year, Carlsen was fined for wearing jeans at the FIDE World Rapid Championship “Appropriate jeans are now permitted as part of the official dress code. This change offers players more comfort and freedom of choice, while ensuring that the overall appearance of the event remains professional andrespectful,”aFIDEstatement issued Friday said. FIDE deputy president and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand told The Indian Express on Saturday that the chess body took the decision toallowjeansafterconsultations with multiple players. He said CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED Vidhi Kadam AS THEIR countries move to repair ties after a five-year military standoff along the Line of Actual ControlineasternLadakh,Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping around noon local time Sunday, before the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tianjin, 120 km away from Beijing. The meeting of the two leaders within 10 months — Modi and Xi last met in the Russian city of Kazan in October 2024 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit — is a signal that the two sides are going to give a special thrust to bilateral ties, and Delhi will be keen to push for a “stepby-step” stabilisation of the relationship. A time slot of about 40 minutes has been scheduled for the talks. A senior Chinese diplomat toldTheIndianExpressthathewas “hopeful of a fruitful meeting”. Thetwoleadersareexpected to give their stamp of approval on a calendar of activities to be organised to mark the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations — last-minute diplomatic talks Imperative totalk, ● negotiate FOR INDIA, the ruling offers a sliver of hope, but it is crucial to remain engaged with the Trump administration to wrap up a trade deal. Given that it’s not just a trade deal, but a larger strategic relationship that needs to be protected, New Delhi will likely pick the gauntlet and aim to get Washington back on table. NYT: TRUMP MAY NOT VISIT INDIA PAGE 10 EXPRESS NETWORK IN A letter to the West Bengal Chief Secretary and District Election Officers, the Election Commission set the ball rolling on Wednesday for the revision of electoral rolls in the state that is bound for polls next year. In Bengal’s Murshidabad and Malda districts bordering Bangladesh, dominated by the Muslim community, the preparations have been on — for a while. At municipalities, in gram panchayats and in courts, people have been lining up with stamp papers — paying double their usual cost of Rs 10 each — to have birth certificates corrected, digitised or “delayed new ones” issued. Owning a birth certificate is not common in these parts — like in other rural areas of the country.However,thefearisthat a Bihar-like Special Intensive Revision may be followed by a drive to compile a National Register of Citizens (NRC), and a birth certificate could decide whether one is certified as an Indian or is deported. In a notification on July 29, the Trinamool Congress government, which has questioned the SIR, issued a notification laying down clear guidelines regarding birth records. Now, people are lining up on the ground to ensure that they CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Behind 3 days of Vadodara water woes, a disgruntled engineer & an ‘unknown’ underground valve ADITI RAJA VADODARA, AUGUST 30 JAMMU: 7 OF FAMILY AMONG 12 KILLED IN CLOUDBURST; SEASON’S TOLL 130 IAF VICE-CHIEF: LESS THAN 50 WEAPONS ENDED PAK CONFLICT UTTARAKHAND HC ALLOWS SACRIFICE OF ANIMALS FOR FESTIVAL P 11,12, 13 Officials of Birth and Death Records Department go through files. Chayan Majumdar A WEEK ago, around 30,000 residents of Vadodara's North Zone found that their water supply had been cut off. The problem lasted for three days with officials of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) scrambling to find out its source even as residents continued to suffer. Finally, they achieved a breakthrough in the form of an “unknown” underground water valve that was found to be switched off. The moment the valve was turned on, water supply was restored. Now the questions: When was this valve installed? Why was it not common knowledge? And, most importantly, who turned it off and why? Probe led the authorities to one its own engineers who was allegedlydisgruntledafterhisrecent transfer from the Water Supply department. VMC said that the accused Deputy Executive Engineer allegedly cut off the underground valvetopurportedly“tarnishthe image of the Water Supply department and cause distress”. The civic body has now filed a complaint in the matter. According to the complaint submitted by the VMC to Fatehgunj police station, Yogesh Vasava, a Deputy Executive Engineer, currently attached to the Road Project department, has been accused of conniving CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Study shows how fireflies mark a forest’s health, why darkness matters PAGE 1 ANCHOR ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, AUGUST 30 ON HUMID summer nights in Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), the forest canopy begins to pulse. First one flicker, then hundreds, then thousands — until entire trees appear to breathe with light. To stand in thatdarknessistowatchtheforest write its own rhythm: a synchronous dance of fireflies, signalling across the night sky in bursts of yellow and green. Fordecades,villagersandvis- itors have been surprised at thesecongregations.Butonlyrecently have scientists begun to systematically catalogue the species that compose this living constellation, and to understand what their presence means for a forest under pressure from human activity. A study by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, with a year-long survey documentedinastate-sanctionedreport,revealsboththediversityof fireflies in the reserve and the fragilityof theconditionsthatallow them to thrive. The Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC), based in Vandalur, carried out a meticuloussurveybetweenApril 2024 and March 2025. Researchers K Ragavendran and and his team scoured 10 locations — from the forest hamlets ofKozhikamuthiandVaragalayar to the agro-ecosystems of Saralapathi — collecting larvae and adult flies under the guidance of scientists M Gabriel Paulraj, S Siva Ranjani, and S Selvakumar. In the end, eight distinct species were identified: Absconditaperplexa,Abscondita terminalis, Asymmetricata humeralis, three species of Curtos, Lamprigera sp., and Pyrocoelia sp. DNA barcoding confirmed the taxonomy, and accession numbers were depositedinglobaldatabases.Each site yielded its own ecological Sriram Murali The survey was originally inspired by photographic work by Coimbatore-based Sriram Murali fingerprint. Saralapathi, with its calmnightsandcultivatedfields, produced the highest count, dominated by A. terminalis. Manthirimattam and Varagalayar were strongholds of A. perplexa, their males and females carefully tallied along transect lines. The study also measured environmental variables — temperature, humidity, light intensity, wind speed — capturing the atmospheric stage on which these beetles play out their nocturnal drama. When asked about the study methods used in a dangerous forest region, especially in the dark, A Udhayan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Director of AIWC, told The Indian Express that their team spent evenings and nights across different parts of the reserve, looking not only at the flashing displays but also at the forest floor, where larvae develop before emerging as adults. “Fireflies are not active throughout the year — during and after the rains they perform, while the rest of the time they remain in the soil, growing until they become full-fledged insects. We carried out extensive DNA studies and larval collections to understand these life stages,” he said. The Anamalai Tiger Reserve is best known for its elephants, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad