As India’s apex wildlife and ecology foundation, which has trained almost every conservation expert in everything from large carnivores to insect ecology, been heavily funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and our Ministry of Environment, The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is the best endowed and ultimate resource to deal with stray leopards. Abutting the Rajaji National Park, its campus is a refuge for wild beings, especially in the dry summer months when its streams provide water and forest cover. So when pug marks were spotted around the director’s office in December 2008, students and faculty considered it just another resident carnivore. Many leopards have lived on the campus since it was instituted in the 80s, some with cubs. This time too, it was a female seeking sanctuary for herself and her cubs. And it should have been the perfect opportunity to study and observe leopards in situ, right? You couldn’t be wronger.

Her presence, peaceful till then, was interpreted as a potential man-animal conflict. And a man, the WII director, issued orders for expulsion: complete with crackers, beaters and fire-starters to raze forest sections. All this was in total contravention of all the commandments of wildlife conflicts. All this, right outside the classrooms and laboratories where future conservation biologists are taught how to manage such conflicts with tranquilliser guns, radio collars and relocation if the animal is violent. This leopard and her cubs hadn’t even caused any harm. At some point, caught between the beaters, bulldozers and burning trees, the mother got separated from her cubs, before she was driven off the campus.

Sickened by the blatant violation of every rule of community co-existence, the incident has disturbed students and faculty members. A home for wild beings ever since it was instituted in the 80s, you can spot everything from butterflies to cobras at WII. Yet if the director hasn’t learnt anything about managing wildlife or even the fundamental rules, then it’s time to throw all those textbooks at him.

And the villagers? The only reason they’d think the forests were burnt was that there was a man-eater on campus. Who’d just been expelled into their territory. And that’s reason enough for any villager to call for the killing of an innocent mother leopard.

They’re both Hollywood A listers who’ve worked on water apocalypses. Whether it was Kevin Costner’s post apocalyptic flick Waterworld or James Cameron’s Titanic and The Abyss—both men share more than the initials of their last name. Now, they have been asked by the US government to bring their celluloid experiences into play to help clean up the British Petroleum mess in the Gulf Of Mexico. Cameron, considered
an expert in deep-sea diving technology, has offered BP the use of his private fleet of submarines. And according to reports, BP has already approved the use of six of Kevin Costner’s high-speed centrifuge machines called Ocean Therapy. Costner assembled a team to invent the machine in 1989 in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska. His business partner described the machine as a ‘big vacuum cleaner’.

Online money is fast gaining currency in the real world. Recently, the supreme court of South Korea made it legal to exchange real money for the virtual stuff. This happened after two gamers were accused of selling the goods that they had earned in the game Lineage for real money. Both were acquitted. Then there’s China, which has imposed a tax on gains on sale of virtual currency in the real world. So next time you buy and sell Linden Dollars from Second Life, be warned, you could just be sitting on a pile of real moolah.

Lack of sight is no longer an obstacle to getting a credit card. Punjab National Bank has launched a special credit card scheme for the visually impaired, which requires applicants to have maintained a bank account for over 6 months and a good track record. Credit card transactions will be communicated via a voice-enabled mobile phone, which the applicant must possess. The PNB has formulated this scheme in response to the Reserve Bank of India’s advice to banks to make all banking facilities available to visually challenged individuals.

One of the few Indian players on the ground at the World Cup is a hoarding—Mahindra Satyam.  (The other Indian is the latex bladder used in the official ball, Jabulani.) Mahindra Satyam is Fifa’s official infotech services provider for the 2010 and 2014 Cups and has a banner on the field for all to see. 

While the firm enjoys its moment at the World Cup, someone responsible for the contract is in a less agreeable location. Ramalinga Raju, prime accused in the Rs 7,800 crore Satyam scam, is at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad trying to avoid prison and court hearings. Raju was the Satyam chairman when the Fifa deal was announced in November 2007.

“Our sponsorship recognises the sport’s universal appeal and its tradition of skill, speed, competitiveness and teamwork—attributes that reflect Satyam’s own qualities,” Raju had said then. He then applied the same virtues in less honourable pursuits.