1. Dalits enter 200-year-old temple for the first time
Celebration filled the air at Eduthavainatham village in Kallakurichi district as Dalits entered the 200-year-old Sri Varadharaja Perumal temple in the village for the first time.
After the villagers submitted a petition to the district administration stating that they have been barred from entering the temple from the beginning, Kallakurichi Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) S. Pavithra held a peace meeting on December 27, 2022.
Amid police protection, nearly 250 Dalits from the village took out a procession, carrying garlands and fruits, entered the temple which is under the administration of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department, and offered prayers.
Earlier last week, Pudukottai District Collector facilitated temple entry for the Dalits in Vengaivayal during her visit to the village to hold inquiry about the incident of contamination of water tank wit human faeces.
2. African swine fever outbreak among wild boar population suspected
African Swine Fever (ASF) has been confirmed in wild boar populations in the Sigur plateau after around 15 animals were found dead in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris recently.
According to officials, the viral disease is not known to spread to humans or to other wildlife but is highly contagious to domestic and wild pigs. However, as wild boar is a prey for carnivores such as tigers, leopards and Asiatic wild dogs, there are concerns on ensuring that an outbreak is contained.
3. The Hindu photographer K.V. Srinivasan no more
K.V. Srinivasan, Special News Photographer, The Hindu, who had worked with the organisation for 20 years, passed away in the early hours today.
He suffered from chest pain and fainted while covering the Vaikunta Ekadesi festivities at the Sri Parthasarathy Perumal temple in Triplicane. Though he was given immediate medical attention at the temple and rushed to the Government Royapettah Hospital, doctors pronounced him brought dead. He was 56.
A postgraduate degree holder in Sanskrit from the Vivekananda College (M.A. Sanskrit), Srinivasan had worked as a telephone operator in a private company before he became a photojournalist.
4. None of the China returnee Covid patients has BF.7 variant
Omicron sub-variant BF.7, which is now a dominant variant in countries including China, Japan, was not identified in any of the COVID-19 positive samples of international passengers sent for whole genome sequencing so far in Tamil Nadu, said the Health Minister Ma. Subramanian at Chennai.
The six samples, which were sequenced, were of Omicron sub-variants in circulation in the State for the last seven to eight months, he added.
Since December 24, 13 passengers including those who returned from China, Cambodia and Dubai have tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival to the State so far.
