Bird flu Scare:
Bad news predicted for NE: Shillong, Jan 30: With the avian flu spreading fast in West Bengal, panic gripped Meghalaya today following a prediction by researchers about a possible "massive outbreak" of the disease in the North East. A "prediction map" prepared by research associate Dr Dibyendu Adhikari and Arun Chettri of the Department of Botany, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), which was made public today, claimed that some areas in Northeastern region were vulnerable to the H5N1 virus. The map also highlighted areas in West Bengal, which has already been affected by the outbreak of the virus, and most districts of Bangladesh which had a "suitable environment for proliferation of the bird flu". Though the map covers potential risk zones of bird flu in almost all Northeastern States, including Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, the hilly areas in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have been identified as lower-risk zone. Adhikari and Chettri...