In a desperate measure to stop students from taking their own lives, authorities in the western Indian city of Kota — the country’s famous academic coaching hub — have directed all local hostels, guest houses and other accommodation facilities to install specially designed spring-fitted ceiling fans in rooms.

The directive from the authorities came on Aug. 16, a day after an 18-year-old student at a test training school in Kota hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his room. It was the 22nd such suicide by a student in the city this year — the highest yearly toll since 2015.

The chief minister of Rajasthan, where Kota is located, held an emergency meeting this week and set up a committee comprising senior government officials, representatives from coaching schools, parents and doctors to address the issue of suicide by the students in Kota.

“We cannot allow the suicide cases to spike further. We do not want to see young students commit suicide,” said Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister. “The committee will investigate why the suicides are taking place and suggest ways to put a halt to these suicides.”

In the past decade in Kota, more than 150 students who were preparing to sit for entrance exams for engineering and medical colleges died by suicide. In most cases, they hanged themselves from the ceiling fans.

The spring-fitted fans that authorities have ordered to be fitted in the accommodations of students are designed to uncoil and lower the moment a load of more than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) is attached to them, making it impossible for someone to commit suicide by hanging from them.

When the spring uncoils, a sensor activates an alarm to alert people in the surroundings.

Spring-fitted fans

The police chief of Kota said the civil administration and the police have been jointly trying their best to curb student suicides in the city. 

“After the [chief minister] held the meeting with senior officials on the issue, we have directed all hostels, guest houses and other places, where the coaching-school students stay in Kota, to attach the special spring and alarm-fitted devices to all ceiling fans,” Sharad Chaudhary, the Kota police superintendent, told VOA. “We have also directed our police forces to visit all accommodation facilities of the students and make sure that devices have been installed.

“With the help of these spring- and alarm-fitted devices, we are aiming to put a halt at least to those suicides taking place by hanging from the ceiling fans,” he said.  

There are about 6,075 engineering and upwards of 600 medical colleges in India, where millions of students seek admission annually, usually after taking entrance tests such as the Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

Competition among the students to do well on the exams is tough. Kota is known for its 150 coaching centers, where over 200,000 students from across the country come every year, sign up for different courses and prepare for the entrance exams.

These students, mostly from middle-class families, stay in hostels and guest houses.

Over the past decade, Kota has often been in the news for suicides by coaching-school students.

‘Improper parenting’

Experts say that some students take extreme steps, such as attempting suicide, after being unable to cope with the pressure.

Dr. Neena Vijayvargiya, a Kota-based psychiatrist dealing with the mental health issues of many Kota coaching schools’ students, told VOA that in “99% of these suicide cases,” improper parenting was found to be the main factor driving the students to take the extreme step.

“Parents continue to pressure the students that they have to enter the top colleges, and that is the only goal for them,” she said. “The students fear facing their parents and society should they not get admission to top colleges.”

According to Vijayvargiya, every student, while depressed, may provide hints to their parents over the course of weeks or months.

Police chief Chaudhary said that parents can play a key role in checking the crisis.

“We are in the process of setting up a separate committee involving mostly the parents of the students to monitor the issue,” he said. “Also, we have decided to conduct a mandatory psychological assessment process for all students enrolled at the coaching schools, at regular intervals.”

Vijayvargiya urged parents not to pressure students to gain admission into the top colleges and to teach their children that “the failure to meet such targets does not mean the end of the world.”
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When members of the marine mammal team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare rush to a Cape Cod beach to help a stranded dolphin or porpoise, they have no choice but to treat the endangered animal on site and then immediately release it.

That is about to change.

The organization, which protects animals worldwide, is opening a first-of-its-kind short-term dolphin hospital on Cape Cod this month that it hopes will not only improve survivability rates, but also enhance the research it has developed over 25 years.

Stranded marine mammals are stressed, in shock and dehydrated, said Brian Sharp, director of the rescue team. Simply caring for them at the scene is often not enough. They need additional diagnostics, treatment and recovery time.

“With this ICU for dolphins, we’ll be able to get them treatment that’s needed, then be able to release them quickly,” he said.

While there are marine mammal rehabilitation centers that can take care of animals for months or even years, the goal of this facility is to release them back into the ocean within four days, he said.

“This is the first time that this has been attempted before,” Sharp said.

There are more live marine mammal strandings on Cape Cod than anywhere else in the world, Sharp said. The welfare fund has responded to more than 400 live stranded dolphins, whales and porpoises in the region in the past five years alone, the organization said in a news release.

Cape Cod is a good habitat for dolphins, but a risky one. Its geography — it is basically a hook-shaped spit of sand jutting into the ocean — can make dolphin navigation difficult, and 12-foot tides can quickly expose a mile of beach.

The 4,200-square-foot (390-square-meter) Dolphin Rescue Center is in a renovated retail space in downtown Orleans.

It includes an 1,800-square-foot (167-square-meter) rehabilitation area with two treatment pools 15 feet (4.3 meters) across and a veterinary laboratory. The public will not be permitted to have direct contact with the animals being a cared for, but there is also an education center where visitors will be able to watch the recovering animals on a monitor.

Staffed by four full-time workers, it is equipped to provide round-the-clock care. It will start by treating one animal at a time, but the goal is to eventually treat multiple animals simultaneously.

The privately funded center has been federally inspected and expects to open by the end of the month, Sharp said.

“We want to take what we learn here and share it nationally, internationally,” he said.
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Health authorities in Bangladesh are wrestling with a surge in dengue fever cases as monsoon rains batter the densely populated country.

According to a World Health Organization report issued this month, “The higher incidence of dengue is taking place in the context of an unusual episodic amount of rainfall, combined with high temperatures and high humidity, which have resulted in an increased mosquito population throughout Bangladesh.”

Almost 90,000 cases of the mosquito-borne viral illness had been reported his year through Aug. 15, according to government figures.

Researchers and public health experts say  the true numbers are much higher. By mid-August, at least 426 people – 81 of whom were age 18 or younger – had died of the fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services, making this the deadliest year since the first recorded epidemic in 2000.

There are four strains of dengue, including the most life-threatening, hemorrhagic dengue. However, only patients with severe symptoms end up in hospitals, where the government collects data.

Last year, 62,098 dengue cases were recorded in Bangladesh, with 281 deaths.

The dengue virus is transmitted through the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes, which also transmit chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika infection and is a recurring problem in Bangladesh during the monsoon season. However, this year’s outbreak has been particularly severe, with the number of cases skyrocketing across urban and rural areas alike.

“We have noticed the disease has changed its characteristics, and so do the mosquitos too. They’ve adapted and become more stronger and prevalent. And now we see that dengue is not an ‘urban,’ problem anymore, the government database now records cases from every corner of the country,” Dr. M.H. Chowdhury Lenin, a physician and public health expert told VOA.

According to Lenin, “Dengue has been present in Bangladesh for over two decades now, and as we now know, dengue mosquitoes had mutations and they are now resistant to the usual insecticide or repellents that we use. So our existing measures are unable to curb the spread of the Aedes mosquitoes.”

Lenin warned the situation could get worse in the coming weeks, as monsoons are likely to intensify, with more rainfall and dengue hospitalizations and deaths. Monsoons in Bangladesh usually surge in August and September, continuing through early October.

“We need to have orchestrated efforts to minimize the fatalities. Dengue is not new in Bangladesh, and as a tropical country, we have to live with such diseases. However, we failed to build a multisectoral approach to prevent this disease from becoming a big public health nightmare,” Lenin added.

This year’s surge in cases has significantly strained Bangladesh’s already fragile health care system, which is plagued by mismanagement and corruption. Hospitals are grappling with the influx of patients, many of whom are suffering severe symptoms of dengue, such as high fever, intense headache, joint and muscle pain, and in severe cases, internal bleeding.

“Health sector in Bangladesh is inundated under corruption and mismanagement. It was nakedly visible during the COVID-19 outbreak. Politicization and commercial interests are the most important causes behind the destruction to this sector,” Sharif Jamil, a prominent Dhaka-based social and environmental activist, wrote in a WhatsApp message.

“The failure to manage dengue spreading across the country is evident now that it is causing casualties in the urban areas in the periphery beyond the city areas.”

Government officials aim to apply the lessons learned from managing the COVID-19 pandemic, when state-run and private hospitals nationwide increased bed capacity, provision of intensive care, and emergency medical preparations.

Dr. Robed Amin, the Directorate General of Health Services line director in the noncommunicable disease control program, said the directorate is hopeful the COVID-era measures will improve the fight against dengue.

“As we have noticed, dengue isn’t just an urban problem anymore. It’s rampant in the entire country. And with the monsoon rain of August and September, the cases will likely to go up. During the COVID pandemic, we strengthened our entire health care network across the country, so I am hopeful most of the severe cases will be able to be managed locally, and not everyone will have to flock to Dhaka or other big cities with better hospitals,” Amin told VOA.

As most of the cases are reported from urban and suburban areas, experts and activists also blame unplanned urbanization and lackluster response from the authorities for the dengue outbreak.

Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist at Dhaka’s Jahangirnagar University, told VOA unplanned construction and lack of awareness helped dengue to become widespread in every corner of the country.

“Climate change is definitely a factor, but there are other man-made factors that are driving the disease. Not only in Dhaka, but even outside the capital, city-centric economic developments drive the rapid construction of high-rise business centers, hotels, and apartments in the urban areas,” he said.

“The entire country has become big construction zones marked by stagnant water on concrete surfaces after rainfall, and potentially breeding Aedes mosquito.”

Bashar said official “anti-mosquito drives” during the monsoon are inadequate to fight the current dengue outbreak, especially because over time and with climate change the mosquitoes have evolved and adapted and have become immune to the repellents used against them.

Activist Jamil said he believes future dengue outbreaks are preventable with a timely and coordinated approach and proper urban planning, among other things.

“A proper urban planning will include people and experts in the planning and implementation processes. If we can engage and empower people meaningfully, community leaders will come forward to work with the local government representatives and administrators to make their own areas safe from dengue outbreaks,” Jamil told VOA.

Bangladesh’s best hope could be a cost-effective vaccine. The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, is leading a clinical trial in Bangladesh for a promising single-dose vaccine created by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, University of Vermont Vaccine Testing Center, and Johns Hopkins University, according to a recent article in the medical journal The Lancet.

Meanwhile, the suffering of the people affected by the disease is mounting.

Saleha, whose name was provided to VOA by her husband, is a 43-year-old patient in the dengue ward of the state-run Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital and was diagnosed with dengue fever almost a week ago. Her husband said the conditions require her to be put in intensive care, but the hospital is already at capacity, and the family is not able to afford private hospital expenses.

“Her platelets count dropped as low as 13,000,” said the husband, who did not give his name. A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood. In addition, he said, her blood pressure fell to critically low levels.

“At this stage, doctors said she needs intensive care support, but there are no beds available in ICU,” he said. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that he is planning to request more money from Congress to develop another new coronavirus vaccine, as scientists track new waves and hospitalizations rise, though not like before. 

Officials are already expecting updated COVID-19 vaccines that contain one version of the omicron strain, called XBB.1.5. It’s an important change from today’s combination shots, which mix the original coronavirus strain with last year’s most common omicron variants. But there will always be a need for updated vaccines as the virus continues to mutate. 

People should be able to start rolling up their sleeves next month for what officials hope is an annual fall COVID-19 shot. Pfizer, Moderna and smaller manufacturer Novavax all are brewing doses of the XBB update but the Food and Drug Administration will have to sign off on each, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must then issue recommendations for their use. 

“I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress, a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works,” Biden, who is vacationing in the Lake Tahoe area, told reporters on Friday. 

He added that it’s “tentatively” recommended “that everybody get it,” once the shots are ready. 

The White House’s $40 billion funding request to Congress on August 11 did not mention COVID-19. It included funding requests for Ukraine, to replenish U.S. federal disaster funds at home after a deadly climate season of heat and storms, and funds to bolster the enforcement at the Southern border with Mexico, including money to curb the flow of deadly fentanyl. Last fall, the administration asked for $9.25 billion in funding to combat the virus, but Congress refused the request. 

For the week ending July 29, COVID-19 hospital admissions were at 9,056. That’s an increase of about 12% from the previous week. But it’s a far cry from past peaks, like the 44,000 weekly hospital admissions in early January, the nearly 45,000 in late July 2022, or the 150,000 admissions during the omicron surge of January 2022. 
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Operators of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant said Friday that initial ocean water samples taken since the discharge of wastewater from the plant were well within the acceptable range for radioactive material. 

At a news conference near the plant in Fukushima prefecture, officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company — TEPCO — told reporters they took samples Thursday of water from 10 locations within three kilometers of the power plant.  

They reported all the samples showed the concentration of tritium — a radioactive material that is the biproduct of nuclear reactors — was below TEPCO’s self-imposed limit of 700 becquerels per liter. The World Health Organization has set a limit of 10,000 becquerels for drinking water. A becquerel is an internationally recognized unit of measure for radioactivity. 

The testing and reports are part of Japan’s efforts to be transparent about the discharge of the treated radioactive water. TEPCO officials say the discharge is necessary to continue with the cleanup and decommissioning of the plant, which was damaged by a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami in 2011. 

Earlier Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi held an online meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Rafael Grossi to discuss the discharge of the water. The United Nations agency last month approved the planned discharge and Grossi reiterated on Friday that it was safe. 

Nonetheless, the plan has been met with protests in Japan and abroad. China customs officials announced a ban on Japanese seafood, and South Korean political and civic groups held protests. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department Friday issued a statement in support of Japan, saying, as the IAEA has concluded, Japan’s process is safe and consistent with internationally accepted nuclear safety standards. 

“The United States is satisfied with Japan’s safe, transparent, and science-based process,” it said. 

 

The statement concluded by saying, “We welcome Japan’s continued transparency and engagement with the IAEA as well as with regional stakeholders.” 

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Ukrainian soldier Ilya Mikhalchuk was wounded near Bakhmut and captured by Wagner Group mercenaries in February. He had both arms amputated while in captivity and was released in April. Thanks to volunteers, he is now in the U.S. getting prostheses. Iryna Shynkarenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Kostiantyn Golubchyk.
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When Reed Cammack hears the first meadowlark of spring, he knows his family has made it through another cold, snowy winter on the western South Dakota prairie. Nothing’s better, he says, than getting up at sunrise as the birds light up the area with song.

“It’s part of the flora and fauna of our Great Plains, and it’s beautiful to hear,” says Cammack, 42, a sixth-generation rancher who raises cattle on 4,047 hectares (10,000 acres) of mostly unaltered native grasslands.

But the number of returning birds has dropped steeply, despite seemingly ideal habitat. “There are quite a few I don’t see any more, and I don’t know for sure why,” says Cammack’s 92-year-old grandfather, Floyd, whose family has allowed conservation groups to install a high-tech tracking tower and conduct bird surveys.

North America’s grassland birds are deeply in trouble 50 years after adoption of the Endangered Species Act, with numbers plunging as habitat loss, land degradation and climate change threaten what remains of a once-vast ecosystem.

Over half the grassland bird population has been lost since 1970 — more than any other type of bird. Some species have declined 75% or more, and a quarter are in extreme peril.

And the 38% — 760,000 square kilometers (293,000 square miles) — of historic North American grasslands that remain are threatened by intensive farming and urbanization, and as trees once held at bay by periodic fires spread rapidly, consuming vital rangeland and grassland bird habitat.

Biologists, conservation groups, government agencies and, increasingly, farmers and ranchers are teaming up to stem or reverse losses.

Scientists are sharing survey and monitoring data and using sophisticated computer modeling to determine the biggest threats. They’re intensifying efforts to tag birds and installing radio telemetry towers to track their whereabouts. And they’re working with farmers and ranchers to implement best practices that ensure survival of their livelihoods and native birds — both dependent on a healthy ecosystem.

“Birds are the canary in the coal mine,” says Amanda Rodewald, senior director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at Cornell University’s ornithology lab. “They’re an early warning of environmental changes that also can affect us.”

Monitoring birds

Daniel Horton sets his timer, cocks his head and listens intently while standing in a fog-shrouded expanse of grasses and wildflowers, the morning horizon glowing pink and orange.

Trills, twitters, chirps and coos create a dawn chorus in the native mixed-grass prairie of western Nebraska, while Horton, a field biologist with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, records everything he sees and hears on grazing land improved by a local rancher.

Western meadowlarks sing atop flowering yuccas. Grasshopper sparrows flit and disappear. Horned larks hunker in the dense grass. There are rock wrens, nighthawks, mourning doves and lark buntings.

Horton is recording the species and number of birds and assessing their habitat. It’s part of an effort to estimate bird population densities and evaluate whether conservation efforts are making a difference. Once grasslands are gone, he says, “it becomes harder for them to … live in those areas where they evolved and where they have been historically.”

A 2019 study found grassland bird populations had fallen 53% since 1970, compared to overall bird loss of 30%, in the continental United States and Canada. A 2022 report found that, of 24 grassland bird species, two-thirds had experienced significant population declines and eight were at a tipping point — having lost 50% or more of their breeding population and on track to lose another 50% in the next half century — putting them on a path to possible extinction.

The lesser prairie chicken is the only grassland bird federally listed as endangered, but only in part of its range. It has declined by more than 90% with an estimated remaining 2022 population of about 27,000. The Senate and House have voted to delist the bird in an effort led by Republicans who say it hinders oil and gas drilling; environmentalists hope President Joe Biden will veto the measure.

Among birds at a tipping point: Sprague’s pipit, a songbird that’s lost more than 75% of its population since 1970 and breeds only in portions of Montana, North Dakota and small patches of three Canadian provinces. The chestnut-collared longspur, which lives in the northern shortgrass prairie and sings as it flies. The Henslow’s sparrow, which barely sings at all. And the bobolink, known for its robust songs and long-distance travels to South America.

“We’re sort of banging the drum … that we’re having a massive loss of birds,” says Amy Burnett, spokeswoman for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. “If we don’t start turning that curve around, we won’t have the western meadowlark. We won’t have the … beautiful song of the Baird’s sparrow. Imagine if we lost that on the prairies.”

Although some grassland birds require large contiguous prairie lands, most adapted to living alongside agriculture, Cornell’s Rodewald says. That was possible because some habitat was nestled within fields or along the margins and farmers often fallowed some fields.

But more-intensive farming practices — including eliminating hedgerows and buffers, planting fewer crop types and pesticide use — have taken a toll. And climate change is bringing hotter, drier conditions that affect soil health and worsen erosion, while watering holes dry up.

So nonprofits and government agencies are working with farmers and offering incentives to improve soil, preserve grasslands and adopt bird-friendly practices, such as delaying mowing until after nesting season.

It’s a delicate balance, “because everybody needs to eat,” says Brandt Ryder, chief conservation scientist for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Conservation groups are working to understand what farmers and ranchers need to be profitable while helping reverse grassland and bird decline.

“Private landowners care and are very, very good stewards of [the land] because it’s their livelihood,” he says.

Turning to technology

To help target conservation efforts, the Bird Conservancy is integrating its population and habitat data with other sources, including the U.S. Geological Survey’s long-running breeding bird survey and Cornell’s eBird sightings database.

Still, much is unknown: If birds must travel great distances to find suitable breeding habitat, does that affect breeding success? Where do they stop during migration and for how long? What’s happening on their wintering grounds, and how many birds return from their winter territory?

“Where along that full life cycle both in time and space are these birds suffering the most?” says Andy Boyce, a research ecologist at the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center who studies the Sprague’s pipit. “We need to figure out a lot of this before we can even start to prioritize where conservation actually needs to take place.”

Researchers aim to find out through a growing network of radio telemetry receivers being installed across the Great Plains to help track birds from Canada to Mexico’s Chihuahuan desert.

When a bird fitted with a tiny transmitter flies within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of a receiver — mounted on towers, poles and other structures — information is stored on a computer connected to a cell network accessible to researchers.

Radio telemetry is more efficient than traditional banding that requires birds to be caught or spotted again to provide data on movements and longevity, researchers say. That’s key because many grassland birds roam the Great Plains for the best nesting habitat instead of returning to the same spot every year — a trait that evolved when wildfires and great bison herds created a constantly shifting grassland mosaic.

The receivers, part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System managed by Birds Canada, have been installed extensively throughout Eastern and Western North America., but there were few in central grasslands until recent years, Boyce says.

Researchers are about halfway to building a network of 150 or more receivers from Canada into Mexico, says Matthew Webb, an ecologist who leads the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies’ installation efforts.

“It is extremely important to get adequate coverage,” including areas where grassland birds aren’t normally found, such as mountain passes where birdwatchers have reported sightings, he says. “We need to fill in those knowledge gaps.”

Several years ago, Baird’s sparrows, which have lost more than half of their population since 1970 and almost exclusively breed in the northern Great Plains states and Canada, suddenly showed up in Colorado and have bred there successfully since. It’s unclear, Webb says, if their range is expanding or if disturbance in their core breeding area — perhaps oil and gas drilling — forced them to turn back and use less-ideal habitat.

In South Dakota, the Cammacks allowed the bird conservancy to install the tracking tower on their ranch and another group has conducted surveys that found several tipping point species.

“Coming up from my grandfather … we do enjoy the native species, maybe more than the average rancher to a certain extent,” Reed Cammack says. “But a healthy ecosystem is a great place to raise cattle, too.”

Saving grasslands

Green prairie stretches for miles as Brian Sprenger heads out to check on his cows, many with days-old calves by their sides.

He brakes his pickup truck as an antelope bounds away and points to a handful of sharp-tailed grouse on a flat area where males gather during mating season to strut and dance.

“It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” says Sprenger, 44, who sometimes sees two dozen or more grouse performing courtship rituals. He never saw them as a kid, when much of the rangeland near Sidney, Nebraska, was overgrazed or farmed.

But things began to change about 20 years ago, when more ranchers put land into a federal conservation program, replanted native grasses and began frequently moving their cattle to prevent overgrazing.

“We’ve noticed that as we have started allowing these rangelands to flourish … that we have seen a lot of different bird species,” says Sprenger.

Almost all of North America’s remaining prairie is on rangelands — and 90% of all grasslands are in private hands — meaning landowner cooperation is critical to stopping bird declines, scientists say. Without cattle, they say, there would be no high-quality grasslands, which require grazing and hooves on the ground to stay healthy.

Despite the progress, many land owners now must contend with fast-spreading eastern red cedar and juniper trees that are contributing to the grassland ecosystem collapse, says Dirac Twidwell, a University of Nebraska professor and rangeland ecologist.

Tree and shrub encroachment and cultivation now account for roughly the same amount of Great Plains loss every year — a combined 16,000 square kilometers (6,250 square miles), says Twidwell, a science advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. All told, an estimated 756,000 square kilometers (292,000 square miles) have been overtaken by trees and shrubs since settlers arrived.

That leaves less land for ranching and farming — and pushes out grassland birds, which can’t adapt to the wooded environment. Shrinking rangeland now contributes to an estimated $323 million a year in potential losses to ranchers, says Twidwell.

So landowners and environment groups are cutting down trees and stepping up prescribed burns that eliminate their seeds.

“These are some of our last remaining grasslands on the planet that are largescale grasslands; that’s why you’re seeing an increased sense of urgency from bird conservation groups and the livestock industry,” Twidwell says. “All of them are saying the same thing: ‘Wait a minute, this is universally a negative.’ ”

Rancher Reed Cammack says land owners are well aware of their outsized role.

“It’s part of our responsibility … to take good care of what we have,” he says. “If there’s to be anything left for my kids’ kids to see, it’s imperative that we do something now.”
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China’s biggest salt producer urged people against panic buying after Japan began discharging treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday, despite firm opposition from Beijing.

The state-run National Salt Industry Group, the world’s biggest common salt producer, said in a statement issued hours later that it was ramping up supplies as people in some parts of China had rushed to stock up.

Salt shelves were emptied in supermarkets and sold out in online sales platforms in some places, including Beijing and Shanghai.

China has opposed Japan’s action, saying the Japanese government had not proved that the water discharged would be safe and has banned the import of all aquatic products from Japan.

“We are working overtime to produce, distribute and making all efforts to guarantee market supply,” the National Salt Industry Group said in its statement.

“Please purchase rationally and do not panic buy blindly,” it said.

The national salt group said sea salt only accounts for 10% of the salt people consume, the rest are well and late salt, which are safe from contamination.

The group said its salt supply is ample and the stock shortfall would be temporary.

Japan has criticized China for spreading “scientifically unfounded claims” and maintains the water release is safe, noting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also concluded that the impact it would have on people and the environment was “negligible.”
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The death toll from an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Rzeszow, southeast Poland, has risen to five, local authorities said Thursday as they tried to detect the contamination source. 

The fifth victim was a woman, 79, admitted to the hospital a few days ago. 

“She was a patient with multiple long-term conditions, including cancer, and had been in the anesthesiology and intensive care ward,” the director of the Rzeszow municipal hospital, Grzegorz Materna, told state news agency PAP. 

In all, at least 71 people have been hospitalized in the outbreak.

Legionnaires’ disease, caused by Legionella bacteria, is not contagious and cannot be spread directly from person to person, but can multiply in water and air-conditioning systems. It causes pulmonary issues, especially for people with weak immune systems. 

“The hypothesis of the municipal water supply network as the source of infection is being verified,” the Polish health ministry said Thursday on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, after an overnight emergency meeting in Rzeszow. 

But the test results of samples taken from the water system are not expected until Monday. 

In the meantime, the authorities in Rzeszow, a city of nearly 200,000 residents, vowed to carry out additional disinfection work. 

According to the local authorities, all five victims in the Rzeszow outbreak were elderly people.
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The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has begun releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

In a live video from a control room at the plant Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings showed a staff member turn on a seawater pump, marking the beginning of the controversial project that is expected to last for decades.

“Seawater pump A activated,” the main operator said, confirming the release was under way.

Japanese fisher groups have opposed the plan out of worry of further damage to the reputation of their seafood. Groups in China and South Korea have also raised concern, making it a political and diplomatic issue.

But the Japanese government and TEPCO say the water must be released to make room for the plant’s decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks. They say the treatment and dilution will make the wastewater safer than international standards and its environmental impact will be negligibly small. But some scientists say long-term impact of the low-dose radioactivity that remains in the water needs attention.

The water release begins more than 12 years after the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns, caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami. It marks a milestone for the plant’s battle with an ever-growing radioactive water stockpile that TEPCO and the government say have hampered the daunting task of removing the fatally toxic melted debris from the reactors.

The pump activated Thursday afternoon would send the first batch of the diluted, treated water from a mixing pool to a secondary pool, where the water is then discharged into the ocean through an undersea tunnel. The water is collected and partly recycled as cooling water after treatment, with the rest stored in around 1,000 tanks, which are already filled to 98% of their 1.37-million-ton capacity.

Those tanks, which cover much of the plant complex, must be freed up to build the new facilities needed for the decommissioning process, officials said.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said it is indispensable and cannot be postponed. He noted an experimental removal of a small amount of the melted debris from the No. 2 reactor is set for later this year using a remote-controlled giant robotic arm.

TEPCO executive Junichi Matsumoto said Thursday’s release was to begin with the least radioactive water to ensure safety.

Final preparation for the release began Tuesday, when just one ton of treated water was sent from a tank for dilution with 1,200 tons of seawater, and the mixture was kept in the primary pool for two days for final sampling to ensure safety, Matsumoto said. A batch of 460 tons was to be sent to the mixing pool Thursday for the actual discharge.

But Fukushima’s fisheries, tourism and economy — which are still recovering from the disaster — worry the release could be the beginning of a new hardship.

Fukushima’s current fish catch is only about one-fifth its pre-disaster level, in part due to a decline in the fishing population. China has tightened radiation testing on Japanese products from Fukushima and nine other prefectures, halting exports at customs for weeks, Fisheries Agency officials said.
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The U.S. State Department, in coordination with other agencies from President Joe Biden’s administration, is seeking a six-month extension of the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) that is due to expire on August 27.

The short-term extension comes as several Republican congressional members voiced concerns that China has previously leveraged the agreement to advance its military objectives and may continue to do so.

The State Department said the brief extension will keep the STA in force while the United States negotiates with China to amend and strengthen the agreement. It does not commit the U.S. to a longer-term extension.

“We are clear-eyed to the challenges posed by the PRC’s national strategies on science and technology, Beijing’s actions in this space, and the threat they pose to U.S. national security and intellectual property, and are dedicated to protecting the interests of the American people,” a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday.

But congressional critics worry that research partnerships organized under the STA could have developed technologies that could later be used against the United States.

“In 2018, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) organized a project with China’s Meteorological Administration — under the STA — to launch instrumented balloons to study the atmosphere,” said Republican Representatives Mike Gallagher, Elise Stefanik and others in a June 27 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“As you know, a few years later, the PRC used similar balloon technology to surveil U.S. military sites on U.S. territory — a clear violation of our sovereignty.”

The STA was originally signed in 1979 by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-PRC leader Deng Xiaoping. Under the agreement, the two countries cooperate in fields including agriculture, energy, space, health, environment, earth sciences and engineering, as well as educational and scholarly exchanges.

The agreement has been renewed roughly every five years since its inception. 

The most recent extension was in 2018. 
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the new BA.2.86 lineage of coronavirus may be more capable than older variants in causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received vaccines. 

The CDC said it was too soon to know whether this might cause more severe illness compared with previous variants. 

But because of the high number of mutations detected in this lineage, there are concerns about its impact on immunity from vaccines and previous infections, the agency said. 

Scientists are keeping an eye on the BA.2.86 lineage because it has 36 mutations that distinguish it from the currently dominant XBB.1.5 variant. 

The CDC, however, said virus samples are not yet broadly available for more reliable laboratory testing of antibodies. 

The agency had earlier this month said it was tracking the highly mutated BA.2.86 lineage, which has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel. 

CDC said Wednesday that the current increase in hospitalizations in the United States was not likely driven by the BA.2.86 lineage.
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India successfully placed a lander in the moon’s southern polar region Wednesday evening, making history as it became the first country to touch down on an uncharted part of the lunar surface.  

Although the United States, Russia and China have landed around the moon’s equator, no country has so far made a soft landing on the more challenging rough terrain of the south pole.   

Scientists clapped, cheered and waved in the mission command center of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) after the unmanned lander called Vikram made its final descent. It was a huge moment for India’s space agency, whose mission to reach the south pole four years ago had ended in disappointment when the lander crashed.  

India reported success of its Chandrayaan-3 mission after Russia’s Luna-25, that was also headed to the south pole, crashed on Saturday.  

“This is the dawn of a new India,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after watching the landing from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit. Waving the Indian flag on a live broadcast, he said “This is a moment to cherish forever.”  

“India is on the moon,” ISRO’s chairman, S. Somanath said.  

By placing the lander on the moon, India achieved one of the mission’s major objectives — demonstrating the capability of making a controlled and safe landing on the lunar surface, which only three countries have done so far.   

Its other goals will be tested over the next two weeks when a six-wheeled, 26-kilogram robotic rover called Pragyan or wisdom, that the lander carried, is expected to map the lunar surface. ISRO scientists said it will be rolled out in the next few hours or on Thursday.   

If all goes according to plans, a range of instruments on the rover will probe the rocks and craters on the moon for the presence of water, minerals and study the topography of the south pole, which scientists say has a different geology from the equatorial regions of the lunar surface.  

“The successful landing gives us a lot of confidence that we will be able to carry out the experiments over the next two weeks,” Somanath told reporters.  

Chandrayaan-3, which means moon vehicle in Sanskrit and Hindi, is India’s third mission to the moon. The first one in 2008 helped confirm evidence of water, the second in 2019 failed in making a landing, but placed an orbiter around the moon that continues to send data back to earth.  

Experts say the Chandrayaan-3 mission marks a milestone in the country’s efforts to emerge on the frontlines of space exploration. In 2014, it became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars. 

“India started its journey in planetary exploration about two decades ago. Now to have a lander, rover and orbiter on the moon and on Mars is an enormous achievement for the country,” said Amitabha Ghosh, a space scientist and a former member of the NASA mars missions.    

Interest in exploring the moon has gained new momentum in recent years as scientists seek to determine whether it will be possible to mine earth’s nearest neighbor for minerals and other resources that are shrinking on earth. 

An important focus of the Chandrayaan-3 mission will be to find evidence of deposits of water ice. “There are higher chances that water molecules could be found on the south pole, which is frigid.  It could be hidden in craters, in dark zones which ensures a high repository of water ice,” according to Chaitanya Giri, Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences at Flame University in Pune. “These could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions or potential human settlements. “ 

The landing date was chosen to coordinate with sunrise at the landing site. The data and images will be transmitted to the lander and then onto earth.  

Scientists say transmitting back signals from the rover to ensure high-quality, scientific results before its solar-powered batteries get discharged would be crucial in conducting investigations from the moon’s surface.  

The lander’s touchdown on Wednesday evoked nationalistic fervor – millions, including schoolchildren tuned in to watch the livestreaming of the landing. “India Conquers the Moon,” “Chandrayaan-3 scripts history” flashed headlines on television channels after the landing.   

Ahead of the mission, many had offered prayers for its success, others took part in religious rituals to invoke blessings for the mission.  

India’s space endeavors are a source of national pride and seen as part of its ambitions to be counted among a select group of space faring countries.  

The program has come a long way since 1963, when the first rocket it launched was transported by a bullock cart to the launch site. The ISRO is now developing a spacecraft to take astronauts into orbit, probably in 2025 – it is part of the country’s efforts to showcase its technological advancement as it seeks to raise its global profile.   

The country, which runs its space program on a relatively modest budget, also prides itself on conducting space exploration at a modest cost — the price tag of India’s current mission is about $75 million.
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The World Meteorological Organization reports scorching heat waves that are causing deaths and discomfort for millions of people around the world will likely peak in certain regions by the end of the week.

“It is the end of the meteorological summer at the end of August … the projections that we have got at the moment, certainly for central parts of Europe, is that these extreme temperatures should peak later this week,” said Clare Nullis, WMO spokesperson. 

“But I do not have a crystal ball for what is happening in the rest of the season,” she said Tuesday.

In the meantime, a forecast of extreme weather patterns gripping some parts of the world show that the heat waves, which have had a devastating impact this summer, principally in Greece, Italy, and Spain, have caught up with Switzerland with a vengeance.

WMO reports that heat in Switzerland has reached new heights with much of the country under a level-three amber alert or “the top-level red alert — as with the case of Geneva — until Thursday.” 

On Monday, Meteo-Suisse reported that Switzerland has a new altitude record for the freezing point of 5,298 meters or 17,381 feet. That means ice will not form on mountains below that altitude. 

WMO glacier expert Matthius Huss said Monday that the expected altitude rise in the Alps during this ferocious heat wave is another blow for glaciers that have already strongly suffered this year.

“Snow coverage is only present on the highest elevations,” he added.

WMO reports that temperatures in much of the southern half of France are forecast to reach a peak of 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) in the Drome region. It says heat alerts have been issued for parts of France, as well as Italy, Croatia, Portugal, and neighboring countries. 

While no statistics are yet available, Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, said the death toll related to this summer’s heat waves is likely to be significant.

“There was a study published on July 10 by researchers from European health institutes,” he said. “And in this study, there is an estimate that more than 61,000 people died from heat-related causes across 35 European countries in summer 2022.” 

Nullis noted that weather conditions in Europe are “not uniform.”

“We have been talking a lot about heat,” she said. “Parts of Europe, in particular Scandinavia, have seen unusually heavy rainfall.”

Meanwhile, she noted that much of the central and southern U.S. also was struggling under blazing hot temperatures. “There are multiple excessive heat warnings being issued in the central plains states and Texas,” she said.

While the European heat waves are in the process of winding down, Nullis said “tropical activity is ramping up as we near the traditional peak of the Atlantic hurricane season,” which is September 10, with most activity occurring between mid-August and mid-October.

According to the U.N. National Hurricane Center, three tropical systems in the Atlantic — Gert, Franklin, and Harold — are of particular concern.

Nullis said Franklin posed risks of flooding to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Harold threatened to bring very heavy rainfall and the risk of flash flooding to southern Texas, “at a time when Texas is battling extreme heat and drought.”

She said the impact of Hurricane Hilary has now dissipated, but while it was active, Hilary brought record-breaking rainfall to normally arid areas such as Los Angeles and Death Valley, “which saw its all-time wettest day on August 20.”

Though the worst of the extreme temperatures and torrential rains may soon be over, Nullis said this was no time to relax.

“You know, we have got the southern hemisphere that will come into play,” she said. “We are already seeing unusual heat in parts of South America. And this is in the early stages of El Nino.” 
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Indian scientists are aiming to put a lander on the moon Wednesday, hoping that the country will become the first to touch down on the lunar surface’s south pole.   

India’s attempt will be made days after Russia’s Luna-25 lander, also headed for the unexplored south pole, crashed into the moon.  

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) expressed optimism about its moon mission on Tuesday. “The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks.  Smooth sailing is continuing. The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) is buzzed with energy & excitement!,” it said on X.

It is India’s second attempt to reach the south pole — four years ago, India’s lander crashed during its final approach.  

If the mission is successful, India would become the fourth country to achieve what is called a “soft-landing” on the moon – a feat accomplished by the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.  

However, none of those lunar missions landed at the south pole. “If you look at the spacecrafts that went to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, they all landed in latitudes somewhere around the equator or the center of the moon as we view it from the earth, because those are relatively easy to access,” explained Chaitanya Giri, Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences at Flame University, Pune.  

The south side, where the terrain is rough and rugged, has never been explored.  

The current mission, called Chandrayaan-3, that blasted into space on July 14 follows the earlier one that could not put a lander on the moon. Chandrayaan means moon vehicle in Sanskrit and Hindi.   

Space experts say scientists have taken into account the factors that led to the failed landing in 2019.  

“It’s a complex maneuver.  As far as possible ISRO has made changes and taken care to ensure that the descent to the moon’s surface happens safely and in an expected manner,” said Giri. “The rest, of course, depends on any technical glitch that may arise.” 

The space agency has released Images of the far side of the moon — it said it has been mapping the area to locate what it called “a safe landing area — without boulders or deep trenches.” 

“All systems are working perfectly and no contingencies are anticipated,” ISRO Chairman S. Somnath said on Monday, according to a government statement. 

If the mission goes according to plan, a rover being carried by the lander will stay on the moon for two weeks examining the lunar surface for the presence of water, minerals and studying its topography.  Scientists believe the polar craters may contain water which would be critical to support human settlements on the moon that may be planned in the future.  

This is India’s third mission to the moon and is part of its ambitions to be counted among a major space faring nation. The first one in 2008 that involved orbiting the moon helped confirm evidence of water on the lunar body.  

Anticipation is growing about the mission in the country, especially after Russia’s mission failed after encountering problems as it moved into its pre-landing orbit. 

Jitendra Singh, science and technology minister, expressed hope that “it will script a new history of planetary exploration.”  

The landing is scheduled for 6:04 pm Indian time on Wednesday and will be livestreamed on ISRO’s website, its YouTube channel and by India’s public broadcaster.
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Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity.

With over 90% of the ballots counted by early Monday, around six in 10 Ecuadorians rejected the oil exploration in Block 43, situated within Yasuni National Park. The referendum took place along with the presidential election, which will be decided in a runoff between leftist candidate Luisa González and right-wing contender Daniel Noboa.

The country is experiencing political turmoil following the assassination of one of the candidates, Fernando Villavicencio.

Yasuni National Park is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in voluntary isolation, and other Indigenous groups. In 1989, it was designated, along with neighboring areas, a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO. Encompassing a surface area of around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), the area boasts 610 species of birds, 139 species of amphibians and 121 species of reptiles. At least three species are endemic.

“Ecuadorians have come together for this cause to provide a life opportunity for our Indigenous brothers and sisters and also to show the entire world, amidst these challenging times of climate change, that we stand in support of the rainforest,” Nemo Guiquita, a leader of the Waorani tribe, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

The referendum is the result of a long and winding process. It started in 2007, when then-President Rafael Correa announced that Ecuador would refrain from oil exploration in Block 43 if rich nations compensated the poverty-stricken country. This was to be accomplished through establishment of a $3.6 billion fund, equal to 50% of the projected revenue from the block.

However, the fund drew in only a small fraction of the intended amount. As a result, in August 2013, Correa declared Ecuador’s intention to proceed with oil exploration in the block. In response, Indigenous and environmentalist movements initiated a campaign under the banner of the Yasunidos movement, seeking to amass signatures for the referendum. After almost one decade of legal battles and bureaucratic hurdles, the Supreme Court ruled in May that the measure must be incorporated into this year’s election.

The outcome represents a significant blow to Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso who advocated for oil drilling, asserting that its revenues are crucial to the country’s economy. State oil company Petroecuador, which currently produces almost 60,000 barrels a day in Yasuni, will be required to dismantle its operations in the coming months.

The South American country started exploring oil on a large scale in the Amazon in the 1970s when it became an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member —membership it withdrew in 2020. For decades, oil has been Ecuador’s main export. In 2022, it represented 35.5% of total exports, according to the country’s Central Bank. Block 43 alone contributes $1.2 billion annually to the federal budget.

In a statement Monday, Petroecuador said it would await the conclusion of the ballot counting before commenting on the referendum. The company added that it would comply with the decision of the Ecuadorian people.

The referendum applies only to Block 43. Within the Amazon region, oil production extends to other sections of Yasuni park and into Indigenous territories. Accidents are commonplace, mostly through oil spills into the rivers.

“It’s not that we’re going to feel relieved. We can breathe a moment of calm, we’re happy, but there are many more oil wells in Waorani territory causing harm,” said Indigenous leader Guiquita. “We hope that with this public consultation, there will be a path marked by the fact that the decision belongs to the people and that we can remove all those who are extracting oil and polluting our land.”
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U.S. regulators on Monday approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the respiratory infection.

RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s maternal vaccination to guard against a severe case of RSV when babies are most vulnerable — from birth through 6 months of age.

The next step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must issue recommendations for using the vaccine, named Abrysvo, during pregnancy. (Vaccinations for older adults, also at high risk, are getting underway this fall using the same Pfizer shot plus another from competitor GSK.)

“Maternal vaccination is an incredible way to protect the infants,” said Dr. Elizabeth Schlaudecker of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, a researcher in Pfizer’s international study of the vaccine. If shots begin soon, “I do think we could see an impact for this RSV season.”

RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people but it can be life-threatening for the very young. It inflames babies’ tiny airways so it’s hard to breathe or causes pneumonia. In the U.S. alone, between 58,000 and 80,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized each year, and several hundred die, from the respiratory syncytial virus.

Last year’s RSV season was extremely harsh in the U.S., and it began sickening tots in the summer, far earlier than usual.

Babies are born with an immature immune system, dependent for their first few months on protection from mom. How the RSV vaccination will work: A single injection late in pregnancy gives enough time for the mom-to-be to develop virus-fighting antibodies that pass through the placenta to the fetus — ready to work at birth.

It’s the same way pregnant women pass along protection against other infections. Pregnant women have long been urged to get a flu shot and a whooping cough vaccine — and more recently, COVID-19 vaccination.

Pfizer’s study included nearly 7,400 pregnant women plus their babies. Maternal vaccination didn’t prevent mild RSV infection — but it proved 82% effective at preventing a severe case during babies’ first three months of life. At age 6 months, it still was proving 69% effective against severe illness.

Vaccine reactions were mostly injection-site pain and fatigue. In the study, there was a slight difference in premature birth — a few weeks early — between vaccinated moms and those given a dummy shot, something Pfizer has said was due to chance. The FDA said to avoid the possibility, the vaccine should be given only between 32 weeks and 36 weeks of pregnancy, a few weeks later than during the clinical trial.

Cincinnati’s Schlaudecker, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said both the new antibody drug and the maternal vaccine are eagerly anticipated, and predicted doctors will try a combination to provide the best protection for babies depending on their age and risk during RSV season.

Another Cincinnati Children’s physician who’s cared for seriously ill RSV patients volunteered to participate in Pfizer’s vaccine study when she became pregnant.

“The last thing a parent wants to see is their kid struggling to breathe,” Dr. Maria Deza Leon said. “I was also at risk of being the person that could get RSV and give it to my son without even realizing.”

Deza Leon received her shot in late January 2022 and her son Joaquin was born the following month. While she hasn’t yet learned if she received the vaccine or a dummy shot, Joaquin now is a healthy toddler who’s never been diagnosed with RSV.
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Practioners of traditional Chinese medicine use earthworms — dried to a powder or distilled in liquid — to treat fevers, arthritis, asthma and bronchitis. But overharvesting in China has nearly wiped out the country’s earthworm population.

Now, hunters are poaching and purchasing earthworms unearthed in Vietnam, upsetting Vietnamese farmers who depend on them to keep their fields fertile and environment balanced.

The earthworm rush has plagued Vietnam’s northern provinces, as poachers, driven by bounty offered by Chinese merchants, trespass private fields or fruit orchards to catch the invertebrate, the online VnExpress news outlet reported. Most of the hunters are Vietnamese, eager to cash in on the Chinese demand.

The rush is yet another marker in the sometimes fraught, centuries-long relationship between China and Vietnam, its largest trading partner. The two nations have long been locked in a territorial dispute over islands, fishing grounds, and drilling rights for oil and gas in the South China Sea.

Now, orange farmers in Hoa Binh province are on 24-hour alert to stop earthworm poachers, according to a VTC News report. The farmers have asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to help. VOA Vietnamese contacted the ministry but received no response.

Catching earthworms is “easy money” for poachers, Vietnamnet newspaper reported, with each kilogram of wet earthworms fetching between $3 to $3.30. Some poachers can capture up to 100 to 120 kilograms of earthworms per night, earning hundreds of dollars, according to Vietnamnet.

Using a battery-powered device, the hunters use electric pulses to flush the earthworms above ground. They then gut and dry the earthworms before selling them to Chinese merchants, Vietnamnet said.

The practice has led to an “extinction-level ecological disaster” in China, where poachers now face a crackdown that has sent them to Vietnam.

“Dilong have been overfished in China, so Chinese merchants have to look to Vietnam,” Vo Tong Xuan, an agronomist who is also president of Nam Can Tho University, told VOA Vietnamese in a phone interview, referring to the Chinese name for the earthworm, which means “earth dragon.”

Biologist Nguyen Lan Hung, a professor at the Hanoi National University of Education and chief of the Vietnam Association of Biological Sciences, pointed to the earthworm’s utility in traditional medicine to explain why they are valued.

“During the anti-French independence war, our soldiers used to eat earthworms to treat malaria. Now, they are sourced to make cardiovascular or neurologic drugs,” Hung told VOA by phone.

Both Xuan and Hung warned that earthworm electrocutions damage soil quality, crops and the overall ecosystem. Xuan emphasized the earthworm’s role in keeping soil loose, porous and ultimately fertile.

“With earthworms absent, soil becomes so compacted [that] roots find it hard to absorb water,” Xuan said. “Crop yields deteriorate over time, while poorer water retention may result in inundation.”

He added that the electric current also destroys microorganisms essential for tree growth.

Hung hailed the earthworm as the “natural plowman” and warned that the electrocutions will eventually lead to their obliteration. Although earthworm eggs are abundant, their hatchings cannot keep up with the rate of electrocution harvesting, he said.

While the Vietnamese cannot ban the traders, Xuan said farmers should resist the temptation of profiting from Chinese market demand.

He would like Vietnam to criminalize the gathering of earthworms with electricity. For now, detained poachers are released after authorities confiscate their devices and catches, according to VTC News. Those detained must also pledge to not electrocute more earthworms in the future, VTC News said.

Nguyen Quang A, founder of the Hanoi-based Institute of Development Studies and an outspoken government critic, told VOA Vietnamese the earthworm situation “certainly feeds into the anti-China narrative.”

“We’ve seen such incidents happen from time to time in the last couple of decades, one after another,” he said.

In the past, Chinese demand for buffalo hooves, leeches, cashew leaves and young areca nuts has caused environmental damage in Vietnam.

Nguyen Quang A said to quell “toxic” anti-Chinese sentiment, the government should initiate talks with China to stop sourcing from Vietnam to meet sudden market demand.

Hung recommended commercial farming of earthworms to prevent poaching, based on Vietnam’s experience with raising compost worms for use as livestock feed.
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