Two new species of birds in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Researchers at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recently recorded two new species of birds — the Great Short-Toed Lark and the Blue and White Flycatcher.

K. Venkataraman, Director, ZSI, told that the first bird (Great Short-Toed Lark) was sighted in December last year in the Landfall Island Wildlife Sanctuary, where a sparrow-sized bird was found foraging on the sand. The bird was photographed to confirm the identity.

Dr. Venkataraman said there was no record of this bird in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, it was recorded in Southern Myanmar which was published in the book The Birds of Burma in 1953. This yielded some interesting information about the migration pattern of this bird. During their survey, the ZSI authorities sighted the bird in the southern seashore of Landfall Island that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

The Blue and White Flycatcher, is a migratory bird and breeds north east of China, south east of Russia and in North Korea. The bird was sighted in the Saddle Peak National Park in North Andaman. The team of researchers from the ZSI could not identify the bird immediately. A reference to the field guides helped establish its identity.

NDTV 2014 Election Forecast for Tamil Nadu

NDTV Opinion Poll - 5 Indian States where women feel safe/unsafe

NDTV 2014 Election Forecast

 Narendra Modi's BJP is set to be the single largest party with 195 seats in the new Lok Sabha, but the national alliance that its leads, the NDA, at 229, will fall short of a majority, the NDTV opinion poll shows. It will need the support of 43 more MPs to get to 272, the halfway mark in the 545-member Lok Sabha, for which elections will be held next month. 

The ruling UPA, led by the Congress, is likely to get 126 seats only, the survey shows. The Left and other allied parties like the Samajwadi Party and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which have recently announced a non-Congress, non-BJP alternate front, are set to get 55.                     

It is from the "Others" column of 78 seats that the BJP will have to win more friends to make up the numbers it needs to form government. Among them, Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalithaa is set to add 27 and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee 32 seats in massive victories in their states. Will they support a BJP government?

Possible ways for BJP in 272 half-way mark:

Mamata Banerjee has said an emphatic no Narendra Modi as PM. Jayalalithaa has not and it will be to this "good friend" that the Mr Modi is likely to look first. Smaller parties like the JMM, Raj Thackeray's MNS, the Sikkim Democratic Front, Independents and others, who would not be averse to supporting a Modi government can add another 14.

The BJP will still be a couple of seats short and could well reach out to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS expected to be the big winner in what will be the new Telangana state, with 11 seats. The TRS is as yet non-aligned having spurned the Congress' offer for a merger and showing little enthusiasm so far to be a pre-election ally.

'Orphaned' Congress Struggles to Identify Candidates in TN

Finding 39 candidates for Tamil Nadu is proving to be an uphill task for the Congress which is fighting a lonely battle in the State with no political ally. And that seems to be the reason why the party top-brass tried to persuade senior leaders and sitting MPs, including Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, not to shy away from the polls.

But Chidabaram, it seems, has advised the Congress leadership to convert the challenge into an opportunity. A top party leader coming out of a meeting of the Central Election Committee said that the FM “was not agreeable, he’s in retirement mode, wanted the next generation to take over the mantle.’’

It seems, Chidambaram during the discussion said: ‘Why field the same tired faces, why not try something new.’ His son, Karti Chidambaram’s name has been doing the rounds as a replacement for him in Sivaganga constituency.

Meanwhile, in Salem, speculations as to whether former Salem MP and former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president  KV Thangkabalu will contest from Salem or not were laid to rest on Monday as the leader has decided not seek election this time. The decision comes a few days after senior Congress leader G K Vasan announced that he would not contest in the polls.

Veteran parliamentarian and Union Minister for PMO V Narayanasamy will contest the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat once again,  after he has been named by the AICC as its candidate for Puducherry.  

The phone call that changed Tamil Nadu Poltiics

Weeks after it happened, people are still talking of the phone call between two women chief ministers that changed the contours of Tamil Nadu's politics. It was a phone call from Tamil Nadu's J. Jayalalithaa to West Bengal's Mamta Banerjee, discussing the possibility of a "Federal Front" after the Lok Sabha elections. And it created a storm in the southern state's political circles whose reverberations are still being felt.

During the conversation, Jayalalithaa acknowledged Banerjee's warmth - that the Trinamool Congress chief has no reservations on her heading the union government after the elections if the numbers work out, that is. And Banerjee was celebrating the "blow" Jayalalithaa administrated to the Left by calling off a proposed alliance in the so-called Third Front.

Jayalalithaa wants to secure the maximum number of seats of the 40 at stake, including one from Puducherry, as for her, every MP counts. She aspires for the AIADMK to become a key player in the next union government - if none of the UPA and NDA get enough seats on their own to acquire a majority.

While the two women political leaders rejoiced, the political strategies of Muthuvel Karunanidhi's DMK and actor Vijayakant's DMDK swiftly changed. Karunanidhi deputed his lieutenants to New Delhi to meet the CPI-M's Prakash Karat to clinch a deal. Vijayakant sent his brother-in-law to New Delhi to meet BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.

Another interesting aspect of Tamil Nadu politics is that except for Jayalalitha, the other major players - Karunanidhi, Vijayakant, Ramadoss and Vaiko - are focused on the 2016 assembly elections and the possible alliances then.

None of the senior Tamil Nadu leaders, except for Jayalalithaa, want to maximise their presence in the Lok Sabha. What is their hidden agenda? To prevent the Congress getting a foothold. Both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi want the state Congress decimated.

The shrewed political manipulation was thanks to Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin. It was he who rejected the idea of an alliance with the Congress, saying the DMK should instead focus on the 2016 assembly polls.

The other major development of Tamil Nadu politics is a formidable combination conceived by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi - an alliance with the DMDK and also to rope in Vaiko's MDMK and Ramadoss' PMK. If such a combination goes viral with Modi addressing three or four rallies, the BJP will not only will gain in organisational strength but could also claim the second slot in the state's politics.

There are some political pundits who bet that a Vijayakant-led front will see Jayalalithaa getting the minimum seats and pushing the DMK to the third slot. Vijayakant's DMDK has such a mass voter following in many parts of Tamil Nadu that the BJP wants to capitalise on this in formulating a strategy for the 2016 assembly polls.

The DMK is a cadre-based political party but ridden with family quarrels. The DMK has also fielded many of Karunanidhi relatives. Thus, after the Karunanidhi era (he is 89), many senior DMK leaders may prefer to go with the AIADMK or the DMDK - and few with the MDMK.

General Election 2014 - TN -alliance and supporting parties