While growing up in Kasaragod in Kerala, Vaishak JP had to climb the Chandragiri hill everyday to catch a bus to get to school. Backwaters and beaches weren’t too distant from where he lived. This is perhaps why he believes “everyone should experience Nature’s beauty.”

Vaishak’s interest in Nature increased as he grew older. After completing his bachelor’s degree in chemistry, botany and zoology at St Aloysious College, Mangaluru, he joined his grandfather, a forest officer, in exploring the forests of Karnataka.

Chandigarh, July 24

A sensory park for people with special needs is set to come up in Sector 35-D.

To be built under the Smart City Mission, the park will have a combination of sensory-integrated play equipment and amenities, along with green area. The park, which will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 93 lakh, is aimed at stimulating the five senses — taste, sight, touch, smell and hearing. The charges for its upkeep for five years have been kept at Rs 65 lakh.

The High Court on Tuesday sought details from the State Government about measures taken to rehabilitate the pellet-blinded and other visually impaired persons.

A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Dar directed State’s senior additional Advocate General BA Dar to place before it the details within two days facilities available within for empowering visually impaired persons and those which have been blinded and have suffered injuries by use of pellet guns.
 

For the past one-and-a-half years, Abhishek Thakur has been keenly following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) announcements; not because he is particularly interested in its monetary policy but because he is visually impaired and wishes to know what India’s central bank proposes to do in response to PILs in courts regarding ‘inaccessibility’ of its new series of currency notes.