Amreli: Bhimji Mehta, 35, wadesthrough a swamp in Savarkundla inGujarat’s Amreli district in search ofthe king of the jungle. Ravaged bylast week’s floods, unprece-dented in 90 years, this partof Saurashtra is home toabout 75 Asiatic lions –many of them dead or ma-rooned.

Looking at tell-talesigns, visible only to him,Mehta tracks down a hun-gry and weak lioness thathas taken shelter on highground to escape the swirling watersof Shetrunji river. The traumatizedbig cat is tranquilized by foresterswho are following Mehta andappears to be respondingwell to treatment.

A teamof

15 expert animal trackers, locallyknown as puggies, has launched amassive hunt to trace beleaguered bigcats struggling to survive the floodsthat have killed 11 so far. Many of them

fourth generation trackers, theirmission is to locate carcasses

or lions in distress in thewater-logged countryside.

Nearly 39 lions, many ofthem hungry for days, havebeen found by them in the 48hours since the waters abat-

ed.In nearby Liliya, Mo-

hammed Juna and RahimBaloch, puggies from Sasan-Gir, are

in hot pursuit of two lions. Bylooking

at the depth and size of pugmarks they tell forestersthat the two lions, agedfour and 10, have passedby only moments earlier.

“Waters are yet to re-cede complete-ly and manylions mustbe hungryand strug-gling to

find their way with their 100 kg weightin such difficult terrain,” says Juna.Fighting odds, including poisonousinsects and reptiles, these trackershave put their lives on the line to locatethe missing big cats by their pugmarks, droppings, tufts of lion furstuck on twigs, scratches on tree barks

and leftovers of a prey.

Puggies comb jungle to find lions dead or alive

Himanshu.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Bhimji Mehta and team during their search

Massive Search On In Flood-Hit Areas

IIT and NIT aspirants’ anxietyincreased on Monday asCBSE failed to release the ex-pected ranks of JEE (Main)Paper-I and Paper-II, forcingauthorities to defer the jointseat allocation process byone more day. P6

2002 blasts accused heldfrom MP:Gujarat ATS hasnabbed Mohammed Irfan Qu-reshi, 55, the alleged master-mind of five blasts which tookplace in July 2002 in Panch-mahal district, from MadhyaPradesh on Sunday. P3

Vyapam scam reachesSC doors:The Vyapamscam reaches the apex courtwith many citizens comingtogether to challenge an MPhigh court decision to quashan FIR against governor RamNaresh Yadav. P9

Talks on over foreignplayers in legal services:The government has beguntalks on opening up the legalservices sector to foreignplayers, while keeping litiga-tion services exclusive for In-dian lawyers. P7

Top NSCN(K) leaderheld: The NIA on Monday ar-rested NSCN(K) regionalcommander Khumlo AbiAnal, allegedly involved in theconspiracy behind the June 4killing of 18 Army personnelin Manipur.

NEWS DIGEST

JEE admissionsput off again

Times Classifieds | P 6

WEATHER

Forecast: Partly cloudy sky. Maxi-mum temperature will be around37oC

Max37.3°C ...................................Min27.4°C

MARKET WATCHiNDICES

BSE Sensex: 27,645.15 ▼-166.90NSE Nifty: 8,318.40 ▼ -62.70

Athens/New Delhi/Mum-bai: Financial marketsaround the world shudderedas Greece, teetering on thebrink of a debt default, shutdown banks for a week and im-posed a daily ATM withdraw-al limit of 60 euros (foreigntourists were exempt).

The sudden shutdown ledto long queues outside ATMs,fuel pumps and supermarketsin Greece even as rumoursspread that the governmentmay have to halt pensionpayouts. There were reportsthat many ATMs had run outof cash.

Against the backdrop ofnervous global markets, thesensex slumped by over 600points in early trade (before

closing 167 points down) evenas policymakers played downfears of a severe impact on thebroader economy. Oil pricesfell in early trade, while goldinched up. The rupee closed 29paise lower at 63.73 to the dol-lar after having touched an in-tra-day low of 63.89.

“The Greece crisis doesnot directly affect India. (But)interest rate may firm up inEurope, which could lead to anoutflow of capital from India,”

finance secretary Rajiv Meh-rishi said (global money tendsto go wherever it gets higherreturns).

Greek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras interruptedlast-ditch debt negotiationswith the announcement thathe was calling a referendumfor July 5 on whether to acceptthe tough terms offered by in-ternational creditors. Inves-tors are worried that the coun-try will be unable to meet a 1.6

billion euro loan repayment tothe IMF due today, with uncer-tain consequences for its fu-ture in the eurozone and evenin the European Union.

Economists said the directimpact on India was likelywould be marginal; its recordhigh foreign reserves of $355billion would act as a cushionagainst any wild swings.

But they warned of a pos-sible adverse impact on cer-tain large Indian companiesoperating in Europe in theevent of a sharp depreciationof the euro.

While the Greek crisis hasbeen brewing for some time,developments over the week-end deepened its woes.

Creditors want Greece tocut pensions and raise taxes inways that Tsipras has long ar-gued would be counter-pro-ductive. The Greek say fur-ther austerity will simplydeepen one of the worst eco-nomic crises of modern timesin a country where a quarterof the workforce is already un-employed. P11 & 13

Sensex HitBut Govt SaysDon’t Worry

➤ Greek PM closes banks, stock market for a week; imposes ATM withdrawal limit of €60 a day➤ Greek debt crisis dragging from 2010, when lenders IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission imposed harsh austerity riders➤ Economy shrank over 5 yrs, joblessness rose as anger grew➤ Left with two choices – accept tougher conditions to access rescue loans or quit

Eurozone – PM calls surprisereferendum on July 5Impact on India➤ Short-term impact on markets likely but economy to remain largely unaffected

GREEK BANKS, MKT SHUT FOR A WEEK

Markets shiver as Greecelooks set to default today

TNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi:The noodle indus-try in India has found itselftied up in knots again after thecentral food safety regulatorFSSAI on Monday ordered Ja-panese noodle maker IndoNissin to withdraw its Top Ra-men brand of instant noodlesfrom the market.

This comes at a time whenthe Indian food industry hashit the panic button with large

multinationals having towithdraw popular productsfrom the shelves due to food-safety and regulatory issues.

Earlier this month, Swissfood giant Nestle had recalledaround 30,000 tonnes of its in-stant noodles brand Maggidue to excess lead content andmislabelling of monosodiumglutamate (MSG) content onits packs. Subsequently, Hin-dustan Unilever (HUL) with-

drew and stopped pro-duction of its Chineserange of Knorr instant noo-dles because of pending prod-uct approval with FSSAI.American café chainStarbucks stoppedusing certain in-gredients in itsproducts not ap-proved by the regula-tor.

Indo Nissin’s productapproval for Top Ramen ispending with FSSAI, accord-ing to Gautam Sharma, MD,Indo Nissin Foods, the Indianarm of Japan’s instant noo-dle maker Nissin FoodsHolding. “On 8th JuneFSSAI had come outwith the advisory onproduct safety testingof all instant noodleproducts in India. Atthat time, we had soughtclarification from FSSAIsince Top Ramen’s product ap-proval is pending with the reg-ulator. They have requestedus to withdraw the productuntil they give the productapproval. We hope to getthe approval soon fromFSSAI and be back inthe market” he said.

Top Ramen tofollow Maggi off

the shelves

� Lionsgo, P4

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Ahmedabad:A court set up withthe express purpose of dealingwith cases involving dishon-oured cheques is in the dock forissuing a cheque (in pic) that abank could not honour.

Sabir Ali Ansari has soughtthe intervention of the chief met-ropolitan magistrate to get hismoney back from the specialcourt — the Negotiable Instru-ments Act court — which hadfined him Rs 5,000 for a dis-honoured cheque.In 2010,An-

sari, 58, a residentof Gomtipur, washeld responsible for abounced cheque andwas even awarded a year’simprisonment.

Ansari moved a city ses-sions court and was exoner-ated in 2012. So he soughtthe Rs 5,000 he had paid asfine. Just last month, thecourt officials issued acheque to Ansari,which he depositedwith the Bank of Baro-da’s Rakhial branch.

The cheque was re-turned three days laterwith a comment that itbore two dates of issuanceand the drawer’s signaturewas required because of

the discrepancy.

Dud-chequecourt’s chequedishonoured

Gandhinagar: Though theUnion ministry of minority af-fairs has accorded minoritystatus to the Jain communitythrough a notification in Janu-ary 2014, the Gujarat govern-ment is yet to do the same inthe state.

In order to woo the influen-tial community in the upcom-ing urban local bodies’ elec-tions, the state governmenthas decided to notify the Jaincommunity in the state as mi-norities shortly. P2

Now, Jains getminority status

in GujaratKapil.Dave@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: The BCCI has giv-en a “clean chit” to cricketersSuresh Raina and Ravindra Ja-deja — accused by ex-IPL bossLalit Modi of receiving favoursfrom a real estate baron — andpassed the buck to world bodyICC since the concerned crick-eters are “international play-ers”.

On Monday, BCCI secreta-ry Anurag Thakur pleadedhelplessness since the ICC — towhom Modi wrote a letter inOct 2013 naming the cricketers

— has not communicated anyfurther course of action.

“If they had found any-thing, they would have report-ed it to us. If they haven’t donethat, that means it is a cleanchit… We are not passing thebuck to ICC,” Thakur said.

The ICC hasn’t revealed yetif it had investigated the mat-ter. Modi, meanwhile, accusedICC chairman N Srinivasan of“shielding” the players, whoplay for Chennai Super Kings,once owned by Srinivasanhimself. P7

BCCI passes buck on LaMo,gives 3 cricketers clean chit

The Congress on Monday alleged that despite Rajasthan CMVasundhara Raje’s estranged husband Hemant Singh admitting

in court that the Dholpur City Palace was government property, Rajeand Lalit Modi’s company, Niyant Heritage Hotels, had turned it intoa“high-end luxury hotel”, investing Rs 100 crore in it.

Congress drags in Raje’s ex-hubbyTIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

John.Sarkar@timesgroup.com

�Seeking retest, P8

�Officialsinsist, P4

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