Joydeep Thakur is a Special Correspondent based in Kolkata. He focuses on science, environment, wildlife, agriculture and other related issues.
Articles by Joydeep Thakur
Maoist posters in Bengal prompt special force reactivation after a decade
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee says reports of resurgence of Maoist activities in Western districts is staged.
Updated on Sep 09, 2020 09:05 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur | Posted by Abhinav Sahay
Bengal’s Sunderbans billed ‘endangered ecosystem’, mangroves show signs of climate-resilience
The Sunderbans sprawls over 10,200 sq km. While 4200 sq km lies in West Bengal in India, the remaining 6000 sq km is in Bangladesh. Around 200 tigers have adapted to this mangrove and hence have acquired global importance.
Updated on Sep 09, 2020 12:45 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Mamata Banerjee’s gesture to save East Bengal football club has a political connotation
Political experts said that even though the initiative might have helped Banerjee and her party strike a chord with the club’s millions of fans in one go and woo the sentiments of football-loving Bengalis, they were skeptical whether such efforts would materialise into electoral gains in the crucial 2021. elections.
Updated on Sep 05, 2020 12:55 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Monsoon pattern may see rapid shift
The pattern of monsoon rainfall in India may see a major shift by the end of this century with southern India likely to register the most increase in extreme rainfall , researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, in West Bengal, have found.
Updated on Sep 04, 2020 02:03 AM IST
Hindustab Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
South India to witness extreme rainfall by end of this century: IIT study
The scientists have also projected that extreme rainfall may increase in the Arabian Sea and south-Asian countries, including Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.
Updated on Sep 03, 2020 11:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
JEE Main 2020: Examinees brave rain and lack of transport to take tests in Bengal
JEE Main 2020: In all 37,973 students are appearing for JEE (Mains) for which 15 centres have been set up in the state.
Updated on Sep 01, 2020 08:34 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur and Pramod Giri
In Bengal, CSIR-CMERI scientists set up world’s largest ‘solar tree’
A solar tree is a metal structure resembling a tree that has solar panels fitted on the branches. The solar panels connected through metal branches produces solar power. The CMERI solar tree has 35 panels each with a capacity of 330 watts.
Updated on Sep 01, 2020 04:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Jobless migrant workers in Bengal become cross-border smugglers
Jobless migrant workers who returned from other states are being lured to smuggling and trafficking with the promise of easy money.
Published on Aug 31, 2020 06:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur| Edited by Sabir Hussain
TMC takes ‘flagged it first’ approach to tackle corruption taint in poll-bound Bengal
Political experts feel TMC has adopted a clever strategy to minimise the impact of corruption allegations on the assembly polls.
Updated on Aug 30, 2020 05:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
India’s second-most populous district emerges as a challenge to Bengal’s Covid-19 management
The positivity rate of North 24 Parganas is around 20.6%, which is almost double the national average
Updated on Aug 27, 2020 12:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Bengal sets up 3-tier scanner to monitor senior citizens during Covid-19 pandemic
Senior citizens have emerged as a vulnerable group in the Covid-19 pandemic in West Bengal accounting for one-fifth of the casualties so far.
Published on Aug 26, 2020 11:16 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur| Edited by Sabir Hussain
Mamata Banerjee furious as embankments repaired after cyclone Amphan collapse
The opposition BJP has accused the government and the ruling TMC of corruption in the repair of the embankments.
Published on Aug 26, 2020 09:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur| Edited by Sabir Hussain
In poll-bound Bengal, TMC gears up to reach out to women voters
Earlier this week, Banerjee had announced that the Trinamool Congress-led government would weed out gender bias in the state police force.
Updated on Aug 22, 2020 11:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Covid centre built by Congress, CPI (M) in Bengal; BJP has a question for TMC
Political experts see this as an initiative by the Congress and the CPI (M) to take their bonhomie a notch higher in a bid to emerge as a third alternative to the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the 2021 elections.
Updated on Aug 19, 2020 02:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Kolkata housing societies come up with logistics to tackle Covid-19 crisis
While some societies have turned their community centres and gyms into ‘safe homes’ equipped with isolation beds and oxygen cylinders, others have tied up with private hospitals.
Updated on Aug 16, 2020 08:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
West Bengal stares at Covid-19 biomedical waste crisis as disposal facilities reach threshold capacity
The two agencies that run the Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities (CBWTF) have drawn the attention of the West Bengal government, which is in talks with the authorities to figure out how to tackle the impending crisis before the toxic waste starts spilling over.
Updated on Aug 11, 2020 08:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Bengali craving for Hilsa grows as poor catch fails to tickle palate
In June, when the over two-month-long coronavirus disease-induced (Covid-19) lockdown restrictions were lifted, fishermen associations had exuded hope that this year could see a bumper Hilsa catch, as the Ganges and its tributaries were less polluted due to the lockdown coupled with bountiful rains.
Updated on Aug 08, 2020 07:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
BSF seizes more than 100kg of Hilsa fish from Indo-Bangla border in south Bengal
The seizure comes at a time, when millions of Bengalis are facing an acute shortage of their favourite fish. Hilsa is often tagged as the Queen of Fish and the Bangladeshi variant is considered to be tastier than their Indian counterparts.
Updated on Aug 06, 2020 04:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Testing drops in Bengal’s private labs after govt caps cost, total tests cross 1 million mark
One private laboratory tested more than 11,000 samples in the last 15 days in June. In the month of July, however, it could conduct only around 9000 tests. Another well-known laboratory chain conducted more than 60,000 tests in the last 15 days of June. However after the cost was capped, the number of tests came down to half in July.
Updated on Aug 05, 2020 10:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Kolkata: Police arrest man for duping dozens with promise of testing their swab samples
Last week, Kolkata Police had arrested three persons for providing a fake report to a Covid-19 patient, declaring him not suffering from the viral infection.
Updated on Aug 04, 2020 07:10 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Bengal governor raises questions over funding of state’s Global Business Summit
The governor has asserted that more money was spent in organising these events since 2015 than the investments that these summits have attracted.
Published on Aug 01, 2020 07:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Second BJP worker found hanging within a span of 24 hours in West Bengal
This is the second BJP supporter found dead within a span of 24 hours in south Bengal and third in July.
Updated on Jul 31, 2020 07:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
India, Bangladesh to use Sundarbans-waterways carefully so as not to disturb movement of tigers: Report
The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove delta that is spread over 10,200 square kilometres (sq km). While 4,200 sq km lies in West Bengal in India, the remaining 6,000 sq km falls in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Updated on Jul 29, 2020 06:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Schools and colleges may reopen in West Bengal from September 5, says CM Mamata Banerjee
The state government will enforce complete lockdown over the weekends till August 31, except for August 1, August 15 and August 22, all of which fall on Saturdays.
Updated on Jul 28, 2020 08:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Mamata Banerjee urges PM Modi to release funds to help state fight Covid-19
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Centre is yet to release the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation worth Rs 4,135 crore for April and May
Updated on Jul 27, 2020 08:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
West Bengal govt issues guidelines against rampant use of antibiotics on Covid patients
Two teams of medical experts, set up by the Mamata Banerjee-led administration, have been making the rounds of the designated Covid-19 hospitals to find critical gaps in treatment protocols and bring uniformity in viral outbreak management.
Updated on Jul 24, 2020 06:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
WB power minister urges citizens not to pay exorbitant electricity bills until revised ones are issued
Sovan Deb Chatterjee, West Bengal power minister, himself received an electricity bill amounting to Rs 11,000 in June, which he claimed was exorbitant and abnormal
Updated on Jul 20, 2020 04:13 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur
Ramp up testing and identify high infection clusters: Advisory body tells Bengal government
Bengal has witnessed a sharp spike with more than 22,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 500 deaths being reported in the past one month alone. Till date, the state has recorded 34,427 Covid-19 cases and 1,000 deaths.
Published on Jul 16, 2020 04:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur| Edited by Susmita Pakrasi
No vacancy in Kolkata’s private hospitals as Covid-19 cases double in 15 days
The number of active cases in Kolkata has doubled in the last fortnight. While on June 29 the city had 1,772 active cases, on Sunday the number was 3,568. The state has 10,500 active cases at present.
Updated on Jul 13, 2020 06:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Bengal registers first 12,000 Covid-19 cases in three months, doubles to 24,000 in just 21 days
West Bengal registered the first 12,000 Covid-19 cases in three months since the first case was detected in the state.
Updated on Jul 09, 2020 09:33 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Joydeep Thakur