Category Archives: Agriculture

Khammam gearing up to ready 6 lakh ‘eetha’ saplings

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature
Saplings being watered by a worker at a forest department nursery at Tekulapalli in Khammam. | Photo Credit: G. N. Rao

Govt. wants to plant toddy-giving ‘eetha’ as part of Telanganaku Haritha Haaram

A Herculean task awaits the Forest Department to meet the target of planting around six lakh ‘eetha’ (Phoenix sylvestris) palm saplings in the coming fourth phase of the Telanganaku Haritha Haaram (THH), the State government’s flagship afforestation programme.

The State government has accorded utmost priority to planting of toddy-giving saplings, mainly ‘eetha’ plants, along the foreshores of tanks and other water bodies as part of a multi-focal strategy to improve green cover, augment income for toddy tappers and check the menace of spurious ID liquor and toddy in the State.

However, the well-intended initiative is beset by some bottlenecks such as lack of proper institutionalised provision for protection of toddy-giving saplings after the plantation drive and adequate government lands to take up plantation of saplings on a massive scale in the district, sources said.

Around 2.30 lakh ‘eetha’ saplings were planted across the district in the previous phase of the THH against odds. Thousands of saplings were given away to the government agencies concerned in Mahabubnagar and a few other districts due to problems associated with identifying suitable open places, particularly around water bodies in the district last year, sources added.

The Forest Department has laid focus on achieving the target in terms of planting the ‘eetha’ saplings in coordination with the Department of Prohibition and Excise during the fourth phase of the THH, likely to be implemented later this month.

The Excise Department has stepped up efforts to actively involve the toddy-tappers’ cooperative societies in the ‘eetha’ saplings plantation drive during the THH’s fourth phase, sources added.

Officials concerned have already held discussions with toddy-tappers, mainly concentrated in Kusumanchi, Tirumalayapalem and other mandals in Palair constituency.

Adequate number of ‘eetha’ saplings are available in several nurseries, including Bathulapally in Kalluru mandal and Cherukapally in Sattupalli mandal in the district, says Sunil Hiremath, District Forest Officer, Khammam.

A wide variety of saplings, mainly of forest tree species, are being raised in 65 nurseries of the Forest Department in the district to fully meet the target of planting 1.97 crore saplings in the fourth phase of the THH all over the district.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by P. Sridhar / Khammam – July 08th, 2018

Tiny Zebra Fish come as a big boon to scientists

Agriculture, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology
CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra addressing a press conference in the city on Thursday.

Experiments being carried out on them as they have organs like humans

It’s a tiny fish found in abundance in India that has come as a boon to scientists and researchers here. They no longer need to be dependent on primates or mice for conducting tests that go through strict regulatory controls. To top it all, the Zebra Fish have organs just like humans which they can also regenerate that makes them ideal for carrying out experiments.

Scientists have been carrying out tests such as putting cancer tumours in fish and using a whole lot of medicines that are available to check for their potency and efficacy. “This could help us in getting closer to providing personalised medicine,” said Rakesh Mishra, Director of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB).

Research facility

The CCMB that opened an exclusive state-of-the-art Zebra Fish research facility within its campus here a few months ago, organised a two-day nationwide meet recently. It brought together scientists from top institutes like TIFR, IIT-H, IGIB, IISER, etc., dealing with Zebra Fish as a model system for research to collaborate and discuss the ongoing work in areas of developmental biology, neurobiology, disease biology, behavioural studies and so on.

Dr. Mishra and Megha Kumar, in-charge of the facility here, told the presspersons on Thursday that about 40 labs in the country were currently working with Zebra Fish for it can mimic the human body.

“It has a limited life span and due to its transparent outer layer, you can see the embryo growing and the functioning of its body parts. And, it is 500 times cheaper when compared to working with mice or others which require a lot of facilities,” they said.

As its body parts can regenerate, it opens up “exciting possibilities” and is very efficient for genome editing, explained Dr. Mishra.

At present, the CCMB unit is concentrating on breast cancer research where the tumour is introduced into the Zebra Fish to check for cells’ behaviour and their expansion and controlling it by using the available medicines.

Behavioural studies

Other studies on Zebra Fish include behavioural ones like how the female fish does not produce eggs to fertilise when few drops of alcohol are introduced into a male!

Mr. Mishra said another exclusive research facility for gene sequencing would be operational soon, while a proposal to have a high-end imaging facility was awaiting government approvals.

Discussions were on with the State government for taking possession of land for its new field lab to test for rice varieties, on mosquitoes and others, near Bhongir, he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – July 05th, 2018

Kaleshwaram engineers prove their mettle

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao (not in picture) is of the opinion that the extra-mile efforts of the work agencies and engineers made the project’s progress possible.

They find new ideas to overcome challenges faced by them

The execution of Kaleshwaram irrigation project has become a platform to showcase out of the box management skills for work agencies, department engineers and even the Minister concerned to keep the momentum of work and meet deadlines.

Those involved in the execution of the project have been finding new ideas to overcome the challenges faced from time to time in acquisition of land, ensuring availability of required workforce and getting the material moved to work sites.

“Unlike in other projects the engineers working for Kaleshwaram project have gone beyond their mandate and convinced people to give up their lands identified for the project needs, after the revenue department failed to make headway. We visited villages, met elders and convinced them about the larger benefits the project is going to derive,” a senior engineer supervising the project work said seeking anonymity.

As all the work agencies engaged in the project have mobilised 90% of the workforce from other States such as Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal for “strategic” reasons, holding them back from returning to their native places during major festivals has been a major headache. Holi festival and local bodies’ elections in West Bengal during the recent summer season were testing times, the engineer said.

“We offered double wages to stop the workers going home for Holi and succeeded in holding back at least half of them to keep the momentum of work for meeting June-July deadlines,” explained Director of Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd B. Srinivas Reddy during a visit to the project works recently. Adding to Mr. Srinivas Reddy’s views, Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao said some engineers were deputed to West Bengal to bring back workers from areas where the local polls held in phases were either over or postponed.

Airlifted

Stating that some parts of pumps for Package 6 and 8 were airlifted from Austria to meet the deadlines, Mr. Harish Rao narrated how they faced difficulties in moving some other equipment brought to Mumbai port from Finland. “It reached Mumbai in 20 days but it took 30 days to bring it to the work site (Medigadda) as construction of a flyover in Mumbai obstructed its movement. Its journey through an alternative route took a week’s extra time even with the cooperation of Maharashtra government,” he explained.

Dealing with five countries, a few neighbouring States and several departments at the Centre for getting clearances has been no mean task, he said and it was the extra mile efforts of both work agencies and engineers that have made project’s progress, as it stands now, possible.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by B. Chandrashekhar / Hyderabad – July 03rd, 2018

University of Hyderabad increases bioavailability of harpin biopesticide

Agriculture, Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology
To address poor bioavailability of harpin arising from its inability to permeate into plants, the researchers led by Appa Rao Podile (second from right) turned to nanotechnology.

Up to 90% reduction in severity of fungal infection in tomato plants was seen

Researchers at the University of Hyderabad have found that harpin biopesticide brought about 80-90% reduction in severity of fungal infection in tomato plants when it is encapsulated in chitosan nanoparticles. The fungal infection was caused by Rhizoctonia solani. The reduction in disease severity is only about 50-55% when the biopesticide is used without loading it in nanoparticles. The results were published in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.

Though harpin is used against several bacterial, fungal and viral infections, poor bioavailability is a major hurdle when harpin protein, taken from the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, is just sprayed on the leaves like any other pesticide.

Chitosan to the rescue

To address the issue of poor bioavailability of harpin arising from the inability to permeate into plants, the researchers led by Prof. Appa Rao Podile from the Department of Plant Sciences turned to nanotechnology. They used the biocompatible and biodegradable chitosan in nanoparticle size to encapsulate the biopesticide. Chitosan nanoparticles are capable of getting into the plant through the stomata (pores on the leaves through which gas exchange takes place) and then diffuse through the cell wall to enter the cells. The team found that chitosan nanoparticles containing harpin pass through the cell wall and end up in the chloroplast of tomato plants.

As a result, bioavailability of harpin inside tomato plants increases sharply when loaded in chitosan nanoparticles. Also, less amount of harpin will have to be sprayed on leaves when it is contained in nanoparticles.

Chitosan by itself has another advantage. “Chitosan’s antifungal property and its role in triggering plant defence responses are already well known. Its ability to biodegrade inside the plant without harming the plant cells is why we chose it for encapsulating harpin,” says Prof. Podile.

The disease severity in tomato reduced significantly and there was fivefold decrease in fungal biomass in the case of harpin encapsulated in nanoparticles compared with bulk harpin sprayed on leaves. While the fungus failed to colonise and infect tomato leaves upon extended incubation, it completely destroyed the leaves used as controls.

Laboratory studies found harpin was released from the nanoparticles in two phases. “The biopesticide adsorbed on the nanoparticles gets released in a burst in the first 48 hours followed by slow release up to 120 hours,” says Dr. Sandhya Rani Nadendla from the Department of Plant Sciences at UoH and first author of the paper.

Currently, the shelf-life of harpin nanoparticle is limited to 30 days as the encapsulation loses its efficiency. “The nanoparticles are currently stored in a liquid phase. We are trying to make some chemical changes at the time of preparation of chitosan nanoparticles to make it more stable. We are also trying to make it in a powder form by spray drying to further increase the shelf-life,” says Prof. Podile.

Tomato plants and R. solani fungal infection were only used as a model system to test the efficacy of chitosan nanoparticles containing harpin in controlling the disease. “The objective was not to develop an exclusive disease control method. We used this particular fungal infection as an index,” he says. “The plant defence activated by harpin is broad-spectrum so can control even bacteria.”

The team is planning to test harpin-containing chitosan nanoparticles on a large-scale on four different crops and at least two pathogens per crop. Two of the crops to be tested will be grown in fields and two others will be greenhouse crops.

source:http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by R. Prasad / June 30th, 2018

Raj Gonds’ Rajul Pen puja kicks off year-long festivities

Agriculture, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Travel
Raj Gond villagers at the Rajul Pen puja community feasting at Chaupanguda in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. | Photo Credit: S_HARPALSINGH

A celebration of their relationship with, and respect for nature

A quick glance at the Raj Gond Adivasis’ religious customs in the erstwhile united Adilabad district will reveal their symbiotic relationship with nature. In the context of Rajul Pen puja, or worship of the forest god, the annual loss to environment in the form of dwindled trees and pastures also gets quantified.

The informal discussions among the ethnic people attending this year’s Rajul Pen puja at Chaupanguda village in Kerameri mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district on June 26 centered on the delay in cattle arriving at the venue of the event. “Loss of pastures forces our animals to venture farther in search of fodder,” pointed out Kathle Yadav Shau, an elder, as he explained the reasons for the delay. This festival takes place in the first half of Akadi month, which usually coincides with the second half of June. The Puja for which every village fixes its own date for celebration also kick-starts the year-long cultural festivals and religious events of the aboriginals. The puja involves community participation and feasting, starting five days after the new moon day or amavasya, falling in June, and continues till full moon day.

Man and nature

Only men of the village assemble at a spot in the nearby forest and worship Rajul Pen. The puja is a simple affair as the Devari or priest of the village offers nivodh or naivedyam — cooked from the foodgrains contributed by every family in the village — to the god which is embodied in the small ochre-smeared stones.

Also worshipped are the centuries-old bison horns used by local shepherds to keep their flock together and the axes they use to cut fodder. A goat or chicken is sacrificed as part of the puja.

The farm animals, as well as goat and sheep, which graze in the forests also form an important part of the worship. The nivodh is sprinkled on the animals assembled near the venue as forest god’s blessings.

“We are allowed to pluck teak and moduga (Butea monosperma) leaves only after the Rajul Pen puja is performed. It is a must for us to use the teak leaves as plates for feasting after the puja but the availability is slowly decreasing owing to loss of the species,” revealed Athram Barik Rao, headman or patel of Chaupanguda. “Plates made of these leaves were in use for centuries,” said Kathle Yadav Shau. “The leaves mature only at this time and hence the restriction of not taking them off trees before the puja,” he added.

Honouring herders

The most important aspect of the festival is the prominence given to the gaiki or cowherds, herre gollal or goatherds, and gollal or shepherds in the village. “These people graze our animals traditionally and are responsible for their safety, hence merit a pride of place in the celebrations,” pointed out Kursenga Dharma Rao, another elder.

“No one eats until the herders are fed on this day,” said Athram Telang Rao, to emphasise the herders’ importance. The herders take charge of their herds soon after the villagers end feasting for another important component of the festival — the Auswal Patt.

The Auswal Patt, or animal crossing has all the grazing animals in the village crossing a sacred line drawn by the village Devari close to the puja venue. “We believe that the animals crossing the sacred line will protect them from diseases,” asserted Athram Kusum Rao.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by S. Harpal Singh / Adilabad – June 29th, 2018

ICRISAT releases bio-fortified pearl millet varieties

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology
The bio-fortified variety of pearl millet being grown at ICRISAT at Patancheru in Sangareddy district.

Iron and zinc levels increased using conventional breeding methods: scientist

Consuming supplementary nutrients for better health has become common. Making it more convenient, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has promoted project to include the micro-nutrients in millets.

The ICAR has set minimum levels of iron and zinc that have to be bred into the varieties of pearl millet (Bajra) available across the country. The scientists at a national-level workshop, part of the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, early this year decided a minimum of 4.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and zinc 3.2 milligrams per 100 grams. Any variety or hybrids to be sold to farmers by public or private seed producers should follow this micro-nutrient standards apart from giving a higher yield.

Dhanashakti — the first bio-fortified pearl millet variety released in 2014 — has been a grand success and is currently being cultivated in 65,000 hectares across the country and the seed is largely being supplied by Nirmal Seeds, Maharashtra State Seed Corporation and Karnataka State Seed Corporation. The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here has recently developed four bio-fortified pearl millet hybrids with iron and zinc — the most deficient nutrients in current diets.

The hybrids are — AHB 1200 Fe, HHB 299, RHB 233 and HHB 311 — officially released in collaboration with agricultural universities of Maharashtra (VNMKV), Haryana (CCSHAU), Rajasthan (SKNAU).

These bio-fortified varieties and hybrids will contain 7.5 to 8.0 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and 3.5 to 4.5 milligrams of zinc per 100 grams of millet.

So, consumption of 200 g/day bio-fortified bajra-based foods will provide almost 70% of daily iron and zinc requirement in men and women, and 130 gram will give 100% requirement for children.

“It took more than five years to develop these varieties with active support of ICAR and State agricultural universities. These varieties of pearl millet will offer nutrient rich food to the consumers. Minimum nutrient level has been standardized after examining as many as 120 varieties bajra across the country, ICRISAT Senior Scientist Mahalingam Govindaraj told The Hindu.

Key vitamins

“Bio-fortification is conventional crop breeding to increase micro-nutrient levels. It helps to address preventable deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals like iron, zinc and vitamin A. This project was supported by HarvestPlus Challenge program of CGIAR,” he explained.

“Since the seeds have been developed in conventional breeding method there is no need to worry. This is an excellent move in the background of malnutrition levels in India – with over 58 % of children and 50 % of pregnant women being anaemic in India, further, 38 % of children under five are stunted,” he explained.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Avadhani Pattancheru (Sangareddy Dt.) / June 05th, 2018

Big leap in chickpea and pigeonpea research

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

ICRISAT partners with Israel’s genomic big-data company

Developing high nutritional varieties of chickpea and pigeonpea just got easier. With new technology, genomic processes that could have taken years were completed in a few months.

This has been possible with the work of scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in collaboration with NRGene, Israel, which helped create multiple assembly lines of pigeonpea and chickpea genomes. This means scientists can not only better understand crop traits, they can also significantly speed up work on improved varieties.

With this technology from NRGene, ICRISAT has chickpea and pigeonpea genomes to a reference level quality that researchers can use. This would help maximize favourable nutritional properties of these high-protein legumes.

“The developing world has long faced the pressures of food security with limited farmland,” says Rajeev K. Varshney, research program director of Genetic Gains and director of Center of Excellence in Genomics and Systems Biology, ICRISAT. “For effective use of genomics-assisted breeding, we need reference genomes of several varieties of a given crop. Therefore, new assemblies of chickpea and pigeonpea lines by NRGene and ICRISAT will allow our scientists and partners to better understand plant traits to breed more nutritional varieties,” he adds.

ICRISAT, in partnership with other institutions, has already decoded and documented genomes of pigeonpea and chickpea (Nature Biotechnology 2013, Nature Biotechnology 2012). Traditional methods would have required years to complete each individual assembly. NRGene’s DeNovoMAGICTM 3.0 delivered multiple assemblies in a matter of months.

“While DeNovoMAGIC has been successfully deployed by the world’s leading seed companies and academic institutions, implementing this for organisations like ICRISAT enhances our mission of making an impact on the world food supply,” says Gil Ronen, CEO of NRGene, adding, “Chickpea, pigeonpea, and other protein-rich legumes will be even more critical crops in the years to come and we are glad that our technology can be used to improve the nutrition status of the world.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by Staff Reporter / Sangareddy – May 31st, 2018

Hyderabad-based Icrisat, KeyGene sign pact that will benefit farmers in Asia and Africa

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

A global partnership on technologies has been signed between ICRISAT, Hyderabad and KeyGene, a Netherlands-based agricultural biotech company which will potentially benefit millions of smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa.

The partnership was entered into on May 25, 2018 in Mumbai by KeyGene and the not–for-profit scientific research organization, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) with the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI), for research and co-development on legumes and cereals. The two institutions will work together using novel crop innovation solutions based on KeyGene’s proprietary technologies and know-how.

The signing took place at a high profile trade mission hosted by the High Commission of The Netherlands, in presence of the Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (The Netherlands) Ms Carola Schouten, in Mumbai. The LoI was signed by Dr. Kiran K Sharma, Deputy Director General Research (Acting), ICRISAT and Dr. Arjen van Tunen, CEO, KeyGene.

KeyGene and ICRISAT will work together on innovative approaches for trait development and gene discovery. KeyGene will share its knowledge and expertise on crops and the use of KeyGene’s crop innovation platforms. This includes KeyGene’s Sequence Based Genotyping (SBG) and mutation breeding technologies. The genetically diverse grain legume resources of ICRISAT will serve as a reservoir for the identification and exploitation of useful traits. These will be used as a starting point for crop breeding and mutagenesis programs. Capacity building and skill development of start-up entrepreneurs is also envisaged in this collaboration through ICRISAT’s BioNEST-Bioincubator “BioNCube”.

“We look forward to this collaboration with ICRISAT to combine scientific expertise from both organizations. The applications of KeyGene technology in the germplasm of ICRISAT’s mandate crops can help develop highly productive and resilient crops for food and nutrition security of the poorest populations in India and Africa,” said Arjen van Tunen, CEO KeyGene.

“As part of this partnership, we are hopeful to see rapid improvements in the applications of technology and its translation into next-generation agricultural products to benefit smallholder farmers in the drylands. We also believe that the combined knowledge will enable building capacity to foster innovation in agriculture,” said Peter Carberry, Director General (Acting), ICRISAT.

The collaborative efforts are aimed at improvement of the crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea, and groundnut. It reflects the mission of both institutions – where KeyGene has been supporting organizations for R&D challenges in agriculture and ICRISAT has been partnering private sector capabilities for public good.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> India News / by Ch. Sushil Rao / TNN / May 28th, 2018

Farmer awarded, gives Governor a gift that grows

Agriculture, Amazing Feats, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Tuber Man’s ‘seed pen’ germinates into tree after pen is disposed of

Shaji N.M., a farmer who was conferred the Biodiversity Award under special mention category by the National Biodiversity Authority, attracted many eyeballs during the award ceremony on Tuesday.

After receiving the award, he presented seed pens as return gift to the dignitaries, including Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan from whom he received the prize. “It is made of paper. You can use it as a normal disposable pen, and when the ink is exhausted, you can just throw it away. It contains a seed, which will give birth to a tree in future,” he explained.

Making seed pens is more like a hobby for Mr. Shaji, whose major occupation is conserving tuber species.

Started 20 years ago as a response to the drought conditions in Wayanad district where he lives, his passion has taken him places across the country, in search of newer tuber species. “I have a collection of 200 edible tuber species, including the rarest ones, besides herbs and medicinal plants on my four-acre land,” he says proudly.

He has shared the germplasm of the tubers with institutions such as Central Tuber Crop Research Institute and Kerala University.

Recipient of many awards, including National Plant Genome Saviour Award, Mr. Shaji’s conservation efforts are not limited to tubers; they extend to rice. He grows 17 traditional varieties of rice on the meagre plot, besides dabbling in fish farming, bee keeping and horticulture.

There were nine winners and 13 special mentions in total at the biodiversity award ceremony, among whom two were from Telangana.

Sangham Women Farmers Group from Medak won the award for ‘Sustainable use of Biological Resources’ for its efforts in traditional and organic methods of seed processing.

The Biodiversity Management Committee of Modi (Jheri) village of Kerameri mandal in Asifabad district won under special mention category, for conserving 26 native varieties of pulses and cereals. Among them, two varieties ‘Erra Machala Kandulu’ (a variety of pigeon pea) and ‘Vayunowka Jonna’ (a variety of sorghum) have been registered with the Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Authority of India, while the recognition of another variety, ‘Balintha Pesalu’, is under way.

Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve Management Committee from West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh won the award for protecting the community reserve, while Lemsachenlok Organization ( Y.NukuluPhom), Longleng, Nagaland, received it in the Institutions category.

Awards were also given under Special Mention category to corporates such as Godrej & Boyce, Mumbai, and Coromandel International, Kakinada. Coringa BMC of East Godavari too won under this category.

There were five categories of awards — conservation of wild species, conservation of domesticated species, sustainable use of biological resources, replicable mechanisms for access and benefit sharing, and best biodiversity management committees.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Swathi Vadlamudi / Hyderabad – May 24th, 2018

Saina outshines Sindhu, emerges the golden girl

Agriculture, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
Women’s singles gold medallist Saina Nehwal of India poses with her medal and Borobi plush doll. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Saina Nehwal won a second Commonwealth Games women’s singles title in style at the Carrara Sports arena here on Sunday.

The former World No. 1 displayed sheer determination and was aggressive all through as she put to shade the challenge from compatriot and current World No. 3 P.V. Sindhu at 21-18, 23-21 in 56 minutes to grab the gold medal, a feat she first achieved in New Delhi 2010.

However, K. Srikanth could not celebrate his ascent to World No. 1 ranking with a gold medal as he had to be content with the silver after going down to the legendary Lee Chong Wei 19-21, 21-14, 21-4.

Early lead
Saina took to an early lead and built upon it to outfox her rival. The first set saw Saina take a 9-4 lead, paralysing Sindhu at the net and coming up with deafening smashes. It was soon 20-14 and though Sindhu showed signs of revival, she couldn’t salvage the set.

In the second, Sindhu was her usual self and even threatened to take the match into the decider. Sindhu was ahead for most part, but Saina never allowed her to widen the gap before levelling at 20-all.

A tired Saina hung on bravely, overcoming Sindhu who saved one match-point before returning a smash wide. Saina instantly threw her hands up in the air in exultation.

“I will really put this along with my Olympic medal and my World No. 1 ranking. It’s a very emotional moment. I have been waiting for that one great victory after the disappointing loss in Rio 2016 where I had to retire because of my injury and had to go through surgery on my right knee,” said Saina.

On the other hand, Sindhu was happy that it was an all-India final, “The prospect itself was exciting and it is nice that it came true. The second was anyone’s set. I thought I could win it, but it was not to be. However, it is a good game overall and I am happy I tried my best.”

Srikanth began with a sequence of unforced errors and was down 0-5 before rallying his way ahead to eventually take the first set at 21-19. But the Indian was unable to keep up the momentum as he committed silly mistakes to go down without much fight.

Reflecting on the match, the Indian said: “When you are playing against such a great player, you have to be at your best, throughout the match. I started well by taking the first set but I made too many mistakes in my defence in the second and third. I gave him that early lead which I should have avoided.”

Satwik-Chirag bag silver
It was also a silvery finish for Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrasekhar Shetty in the men’s doubles, as they lost to England’s Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge 21-13, 21-16.

Satwik, in partnership with Ashwini Ponnappa, had lost the mixed doubles bronze medal match on Saturday to Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon and Guo Liu Ying 21-19, 21-19, and not as reported in these columns on Sunday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Other Sports / by A. Vinod / Gold Coast – April 15th, 2018