Arunachal: Army contains wildfire along Sino-India border
Itanagar (PTI): A wildfire that broke out about a week ago near Kaho village in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district has been doused by the Indian Army, an official said on Friday.
According to a post by the Spear Corps of the Indian Army, the fire broke out along the western ridge of the Lohit River close to the Sino-India border.
In a joint and coordinated effort, the troops of Spear Corps, along with the Indian Air Force, mobilised swiftly and successfully contained the forest fire, ensuring no damage to civilian life or property, it said.
The Indian Air Force (IAF), in a post, said that Mi-17V5 helicopters dropped 12,000 litres of water in the rarefied Himalayan air, showcasing exceptional courage, precision, and a commitment towards protecting lives and fragile ecosystems.
Sharing the post by IAF, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said, "My heartfelt gratitude to the @IAF_MCC Indian Air Force for their swift response in battling forest fire in Lohit Valley."
Meanwhile, a senior police official claimed that the fire had started on the other side of the LAC on January 21.
He said the wildfire spread into the Indian side on January 27 and engulfed Kaho, Sheru area, and Madan Ridge near the LAC.
The cause of the wildfire is unknown, but an area of 4,50,00 sq metre (approx) has been destroyed, the official said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army has also contained another wildfire at Tongkorla in Mechukha in the state's Shi-Yomi district, a Defence official said.
Responding to a request for assistance from a landowner, the quick reaction team undertook coordinated firefighting operations under difficult terrain and weather conditions, Defence PRO Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
The official said the team contained the fire, preventing potential loss of human life, property, and surrounding forest cover.
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Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
