Nightingales Forest is a rare piece of dense forest in an agricultural area

Plandiste (Serbia): The melodious chirping of birds was echoing among the tall trees in a small forest in northeastern Serbia. On the ground below, animal tracks could be seen imprinted in the moist grass and moss.The 2-hectare patch of land, called the Nightingale’s Forest, is a rare patch of dense greenery in Serbia’s flat, agricultural region. The Balkan country’s Bird Protection and Study Society purchased the land through crowdfunding last year to preserve the forest and set an example in environmental protection.Society representative Uros Stojiljkovic said, “This woodland was privately owned, and we saw that it was put up for sale.” He said that if someone else had purchased the land, the trees might have been cut.“The value of the wood was greater than the value of the land,” Stojiljkovic said. “We kept it safe that way.”The success of the crowdfunding initiative is seen as a sign of growing interest in nature conservation among people in Serbia as the country faces environmental problems ranging from air and river pollution and waste management to profit-driven construction that threatens green areas, especially in big cities.Authorities have promised to boost environmental care as part of the country’s EU membership bid, but conservation groups warn that little has been done in reality.Stojilkovic explained that the Nightingale Forest is home to a variety of bird and animal species that thrive in its moist habitat. The new owners now plan to preserve the woodland as it is and catalog the plants and animals there.The purchase price of 8,000 euros ($9,500) was collected in less than a month and hundreds of people have continued to donate money that will be used for field work or additional land purchases, said Natasa Jancic, who is involved in the campaign.“Individually, we can’t do much, but as an active and stable community, we can accomplish a lot,” Jancic said.Launched about 30 years ago as a small, expert-only group, the Bird Protection and Study Society has grown into a community of nature lovers, a testament to the growing interest in the environment, Jancic said.“We have a lot of family members, a lot of nature lovers who maybe aren’t as active in this area but they want to contribute in some way,” Jancic said.Only 2 hectares under protection won’t change much on a larger scale, but it’s a good first step, Stojiljkovic said.“Every village or town should have its own nightingale forest for cumulative effect,” he said. “It’s important to start somewhere,” he adds.

Mamata Banerjee vs Suvendu Adhikari 2.0 in West Bengal.

New Delhi: All eyes are on the high-stakes contest between Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee And as Suvendu Adhikari, opposition leader of the assembly, the counting of votes will take place on Monday.all india Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Banerjee contested re-election from Bhabanipur seat, where polling was held in the second phase on April 29. Meanwhile, Adhikari campaigned as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for both Nandigram and Bhabanipur.In 2021, Banerjee contested against Adhikari in her home constituency Nandigram. She lost to the BJP leader by 1,956 votes. Now, Adhikari is taking on Banerjee in Bhabanipur, the CM’s home constituency. Bhawanipur has been Banerjee’s stronghold for a long time. She has been representing this seat as MLA since 2011 and has not lost any election there. After becoming CM in 2011, he won a decisive by-election from Bhawanipur by 54,213 votes.In 2016, his margin narrowed as he defeated Congress candidate Dipa Dasmunshi, supported by Left parties, by 25,301 votes, while the BJP got 26,299 votes.In 2021, TMC retained Bhabanipur, with Sovandeb Chattopadhyay defeating BJP’s Rudranil Ghosh by 28,719 votes. BJP’s vote share increased to 35.2%, indicating growing presence.Banerjee later returned to contest the Bhabanipur by-election, winning by 58,835 votes and securing her third term as CM.There has also been a change in voters in Bhabanipur, with 41,068 names removed from the list, reducing the voter base by nearly 20% to around 1.6 lakh. An analysis by Suptik Halder with Ashin Chakraborty and Sabir Ahmed found that 56.7% of the voters marked under the ‘under jurisdiction’ category are Muslims, while their share in the constituency’s population was 20% as per the 2011 census.Earlier findings had shown that Muslims constituted 22.7% of voters marked as ‘absent, transferred, or dead/duplicate’ (ASDD), while the ‘unmapped’ share was about 26%, roughly in line with their population share. However, this rose sharply to 52% in the ‘logical inconsistency’ list.According to Chakraborty, despite Bhabanipur being a mixed community constituency, there is a disproportionate representation of Muslims under scrutiny. Halder said booth-wise analysis of 2021 and 2024 data shows that if voters are unable to vote under the decision, TMC’s victory margin could reduce significantly, and may even disappear at some booths.

लिपुलेख दर्रे के जरिए भारत और चीन के बीच लंबे समय से व्यापार होता रहा है, लेकिन कोरोना काल और भारत-चीन के बीच तनावपूर्ण रिश्तों के बीच इसे बंद कर दिया गया था. करीब छह साल बाद एक बार फिर कारोबार शुरू होने जा रहा है। रक्षा विशेषज्ञों का मानना ​​है कि मौजूदा भूराजनीतिक परिस्थितियों के बीच भारत और चीन दोनों आपसी रिश्ते मजबूत करना चाहते हैं।

लिपुलेख कारोबार इसमें अहम भूमिका निभा सकता है. यह व्यापार मौद्रिक मूल्यों में बहुत बड़ा नहीं है। दोनों देशों के बीच 2 से 5 करोड़ रुपए का ही व्यापार होता है। सीमा के आसपास रहने वाले चीन और भारत के स्थानीय निवासी इस दर्रे से होकर आपस में व्यापार करते रहे हैं, लेकिन रणनीतिक तौर पर यह बेहद महत्वपूर्ण है। पूरी क्षमता के उपयोग से 100 करोड़ रुपये तक के कारोबार की संभावना है.

ये भी पढ़ें…उत्तराखंड: सेल ब्रॉडकास्टिंग सिस्टम का टेस्टिंग अलर्ट जारी, तेज आवाज और कंपन के साथ फोन पर पहुंचा मैसेज

सीमा के पास रहने वाले लोगों को फायदा

उत्तराखंड और आसपास के क्षेत्रों के किसान इस दर्रे के माध्यम से कपड़ा, तेल-घी, मसाले और अनाज जैसी वस्तुओं का निर्यात करते हैं, जबकि चीनी इन क्षेत्रों, विशेषकर तिब्बत से ऊन, कच्चा रेशम, चिरबी और चीनी जैसी वस्तुओं का आयात करते हैं। इस व्यापार के शुरू होने से दोनों देशों के बीच सीमा पार लोगों का लेनदेन बढ़ेगा, जिससे आपसी संबंध मजबूत होंगे।

There is something about the message of Guru Nanak Dev Ji that really makes a difference when you sit for a moment. Not because it’s new or flashy, but because it cuts through all the noise we create around spirituality and gets down to some truth. Born in Punjab in 1469, he spent his life wandering, teaching, and fundamentally reshaping the way people understood their relationship with God and each other. And honestly, her core message, that kindness and inner strength are not different things, but two sides of the same coin, feels perhaps more urgent now than ever.Most people who have encountered Sikhism know about the community kitchen, langar, where everyone eats together regardless of caste, creed or social status. This is not a trivial detail in Nanak’s philosophy. It’s basically their entire point summed up in one exercise. He lived at a time when India’s rigid caste system dictated who could sit with whom, who was pure and who was not. This was truly revolutionary. Despicable, even. But Nanak saw all that. He understood that real strength comes from seeing the same spark of humanity in everyone, and kindness is what happens when you really take it seriously.Interestingly, Nanak did not separate spirituality from everyday life. He was saying, look, God is everywhere. In nature, in people, in work, in kindness. You don’t need an intermediary. You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. Just be honest, be kind, and stand out to other people. That was the way.The inner strength part is where things get really subtle. Nanak taught something called “Haumai”, which basically means egoism or self-centeredness. And he was not ashamed of it, he saw it as the root of almost all suffering. We get so caught up in “me vs. them”, in protecting our image, in proving ourselves to others, that we forget what is actually happening around us. According to Nanak, real strength comes from giving up the constant need to protect oneself. This is counterintuitive because we have been taught that strength means being firm, maintaining control. And this is where it connects back to kindness. When you’re not obsessed with your own image or constantly defending your ego, you have space to really notice what someone else needs. You can be generous not because you expect anything back or because it makes you look good, but because someone else is struggling and you have the ability to help. He is a radical. It is also incredibly difficult, perhaps that is why Nanak kept coming back to it again and again.The concept of “Naam Simran” – remembrance of God – is another sutra of this. But it is not about endless repetition of words or withdrawal from the world. It’s about being in constant awareness of something bigger than yourself, which actually makes you gentler and more humble. When you are not the center of your universe, you stop taking things personally. You become less reactive, more responsive. You can be kind even when it’s inconvenient because you’re not keeping score.Sometimes what gets lost in the way we talk about spirituality is the joy of it. There is this warmth in the teachings of Guru Nanak, this understanding that the meaning of life is to live it to the fullest. Music was central to his teaching method. He wrote poetry. He celebrated being alive. This is inherited from the Sikh tradition. Kindness without happiness can become oppressive, as if you must always sacrifice. But Nanak says something different. It is generous because it knows that generosity does not destroy you. It fills you up.However, the bigger part is this: Guru Nanak was emphasizing something that our modern world desperately needs to be reminded of. Kindness and strength are not soft concepts for people who can’t handle reality. They are the most practical, powerful tools we have. They’re how we build communities that actually work. They are how we get through tough times without becoming hardened. They are how we change, not only ourselves, but the world around us.His message was not about being nice all the time or pretending everything is fine. It was really about waking up to what is true and then acting from that place. It’s harder than it seems, which is probably why we’re still talking about it 550 years later.