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Sri Lanka is withholding the results of a survey of crop-destroying wildlife, including monkeys and peacocks, because data collected from some farmers appeared unrealistic, a minister said on Monday.Deputy Environment Minister Anton Jayakodi said authorities had begun a review of the nationwide survey conducted on March 15, the first of its kind, because “some of the data was unbelievable”.Authorities suggested some enraged farmers might have exaggerated the numbers to suggest that the problem was even bigger.Data in some places appeared “unusually high”, officials said.Residents across the island country were asked to count wild boar, peacocks, monkeys and lorises — a small, largely nocturnal primate — spotted near farms and homes during a five-minute period.”We started the survey to understand the size of the problem,” Jayakodi told reporters in Colombo. “But we now have to review the results… there have been issues with some unusual data.”Jayakodi said officials would return to assess data before releasing the final results of the survey, which was aimed at drawing up a national plan to deal with nuisance wildlife.Opposition legislator Nalin Bandara said the survey was “a complete failure, a waste of money”.Officials say more than a third of crops are destroyed by wild animals, including elephants that are protected by law because they are considered sacred.While elephants are major raiders of rice farms and fruit plantations, they were not included in the March count.The then agricultural minister proposed in 2023 exporting some 100,000 toque macaques to Chinese zoos but the monkey business was abandoned following protests from environmentalists.Sri Lanka removed several species from its protected list in 2023, including all three of its monkey species as well as peacocks and wild boars, allowing farmers to kill them.

On a small farm in India’s Maharashtra state, Mirabai Khindkar said the only thing her land grew was debt, after crops failed in drought and her husband killed himself.Farmer suicides have a long history in India, where many are one crop failure away from disaster, but extreme weather caused by climate change is adding fresh pressure.Dwindling yields due to water shortages, floods, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall, coupled with crippling debt, have taken a heavy toll on a sector that employs 45 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people.Mirabhai’s husband Amol was left with debts to loan sharks worth hundreds of times their farm’s annual income, after the three-acre (one-hectare) soybean, millet and cotton plot withered in scorching heat.He swallowed poison last year.”When he was in the hospital, I prayed to all the gods to save him,” said 30-year-old Mirabai, her voice breaking.Amol died a week later, leaving behind Mirabai and three children. Her last conversation with him was about debt.Their personal tragedy is replicated daily across Marathwada, a region in Maharashtra of 18 million, once known for fertile farmland.Last year, extreme weather events across India affected 3.2 million hectares (7.9 million acres) of cropland — an area bigger than Belgium — according to the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment research group.Over 60 percent of that was in Maharashtra. “Summers are extreme, and even if we do what is necessary, the yield is not enough,” said Amol’s brother and fellow farmer Balaji Khindkar.”There is not enough water to irrigate the fields. It doesn’t rain properly.”- ‘Increase the risks’ -Between 2022 and 2024, 3,090 farmers took their own lives in Marathwada, an average of nearly three a day, according to India’s Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan.Government statistics do not specify what drove the farmers to kill themselves, but analysts point to several likely factors.”Farmer suicides in India are a consequence of the crisis of incomes, investment and productivity that you have in agriculture,” said R. Ramakumar, professor of development studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.Farming across many Indian smallholdings is done largely as it has been for centuries, and is highly dependent on the right weather at the correct time.”What climate change and its vulnerabilities and variabilities have done is to increase the risks in farming,” Ramakumar said.This “is leading to crop failures, uncertainties… which is further weakening the economics of cultivation for small and marginal farmers.”The government could support farmers with better insurance schemes to cope with extreme weather events, as well as investments in agricultural research, Ramakumar said.”Agriculture should not be a gamble with the monsoon.”- ‘Make ends meet’ -Faced with uncertain weather, farmers often look to stem falling yields by investing in fertilisers or irrigation systems.But banks can be reluctant to offer credit to such uncertain borrowers.Some turn to loan sharks offering quick cash at exorbitant interest rates, and risking catastrophe if crops fail.”It is difficult to make ends meet with just farming,” Mirabai said, standing outside her home, a tin-roofed hut with patch-cloth walls.Her husband’s loans soared to over $8,000, a huge sum in India, where the average monthly income of a farming household is around $120.Mirabai works on other farms as a labourer but could not pay back the debt.”The loan instalments piled up,” she said, adding that she wants her children to find jobs outside of farming when they grow up.”Nothing comes out of the farm.”The agricultural industry has been in a persistent crisis for decades.And while Maharashtra has some of the highest suicide rates, the problem is nationwide.Thirty people in the farming sector killed themselves every day in 2022, according to national crime records bureau statistics.At another farm in Marathwada, 32-year-old farmer Shaikh Imran took over the running of the family smallholding last year after his brother took his own life.He is already more than $1,100 in debt after borrowing to plant soybean.The crop failed.Meanwhile, the pop of explosives echoes around as farmers blast wells, hoping to hit water.”There’s no water to drink,” said family matriarch Khatijabi. “Where shall we get water to irrigate the farm?”

An Indian state riven by ethnic tensions imposed an internet shutdown and curfew after protesters clashed with security forces over the arrest of some members of a radical group, police said Sunday.Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than two years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community that have killed more than 250 people.The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group.Incensed mobs demanding their release stormed a police post, set fire to a bus and blocked roads in parts of the state capital Imphal.Manipur police announced a curfew in five districts, including Imphal West and Bishnupur, due to the “developing law and order situation”.”Prohibitory orders have been issued by District Magistrates. Citizens are requested to cooperate with the orders,” the police said in a statement.Arambai Tenggol, which is alleged to have orchestrated the violence against the Kuki community, has also announced a 10-day shutdown in the valley districts.The state’s home ministry has ordered all internet and mobile data services in volatile districts to be shut off for five days in order to bring the latest unrest under control.Internet services were shut down for months in Manipur during the initial outbreak of violence in 2023, which displaced around 60,000 people from their homes according to government figures.Thousands of the state’s residents are still unable to return home owing to ongoing tensions.Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs. Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

All writers draw on their experience, whether consciously or not, says Indian author Banu Mushtaq — including the titular tale of attempted self-immolation in her International Booker Prize-winning short story collection.Mushtaq, who won the coveted literature prize as the first author writing in Kannada — an Indian regional language — said the author’s responsibility is to reflect the truth.”You cannot simply write describing a rose,” said the 77-year-old, who is also a lawyer and activist.”You cannot say it has got such a fragrance, such petals, such colour. You have to write about the thorns also. It is your responsibility, and you have to do it.”Her book “Heart Lamp”, a collection of 12 powerful short stories, is also her first book translated into English, with the prize shared with her translator Deepa Bhasthi.Critics praised the collection for its dry and gentle humour, and its searing commentary on the patriarchy, caste and religion.Mushtaq has carved an alternative path in life, challenging societal restrictions and perceptions.As a young girl worried about her future, she said she started writing to improve her “chances of marriage”.Born into a Muslim family in 1948, she studied in Kannada, which is spoken mostly in India’s southern Karnataka state by around 43 million people, rather than Urdu, the language of Islamic texts in India and which most Muslim girls learnt.She attended college, and worked as a journalist and also as a high school teacher. – ‘Confused’ -But after marrying for love, Mushtaq found her life constricted. “I was not allowed to have any intellectual activities. I was not allowed to write,” she said. “I was in that vacuum. That harmed me.”She recounted how as a young mother aged around 27 with possible postpartum depression, and ground down by domestic life, had doused petrol on herself and on the “spur of a moment” readied to set herself on fire.Her husband rushed to her with their three-month-old daughter.”He took the baby and put her on my feet, and he drew my attention to her and he hugged me, and he stopped me,” Mushtaq told AFP.The experience is nearly mirrored in her book — in its case, the protagonist is stopped by her daughter. “People get confused that it might be my life,” the writer said.Explaining that while not her exact story, “consciously or subconsciously, something of the author, it reflects in her or his writing”.Books line the walls in Mushtaq’s home, in the small southern Indian town of Hassan.Her many awards and certificates — including a replica of the Booker prize she won in London in May — are also on display.She joked that she was born to write — at least that is what a Hindu astrological birth chart said about her future.”I don’t know how it was there, but I have seen the birth chart,” Mushtaq said with a laugh, speaking in English.The award has changed her life “in a positive way”, she added, while noting the fame has been a little overwhelming.”I am not against the people, I love people,” she said referring to the stream of visitors she gets to her home.”But with this, a lot of prominence is given to me, and I don’t have any time for writing. I feel something odd… Writing gives me a lot of pleasure, a lot of relief.”- ‘Patriarchy everywhere’ -Mushtaq’s body of work spans six short story collections, an essay collection and poetry. The stories in “Heart Lamp” were chosen from the six short story collections, dating back to 1990.The Booker jury hailed her characters -– from spirited grandmothers to bumbling religious clerics –- as “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience”.The stories portray Muslim women going through terrible experiences, including domestic violence, the death of children and extramarital affairs. Mushtaq said that while the main characters in her books are all Muslim women, the issues are universal.”They (women) suffer this type of suppression and this type of exploitation, this type of patriarchy everywhere,” she said. “A woman is a woman, all over the world.”While accepting that even the people for whom she writes may not like her work, Mushtaq said she remained dedicated to providing wider truths.”I have to say what is necessary for the society,” she said.”The writer is always pro-people… With the people, and for the people.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to Kashmir on Friday since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan, opening a strategic railway line to the contested region he called “the crown jewel of India”.Modi launched a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the divided Muslim-majority territory, the centre of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought a four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.”Pakistan will never forget… its shameful loss,” the Hindu nationalist premier told crowds a month since India launched strikes on its neighbour after an attack on tourists in Kashmir.”Friends, today’s event is a grand festival of India’s unity and firm resolve,” Modi said after striding across the soaring bridge to formally launch it for rail traffic.”This is a symbol and celebration of rising India,” he said of the Chenab Bridge which connects two mountains.New Delhi calls the Chenab span the “world’s highest railway arch bridge”, sitting 359 metres (1,117 feet) above a river.While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.- ‘Our troubles’ -Modi said the railway was “an extraordinary feat of architecture” that “will improve connectivity” by providing the first rail link from the Indian plains up to mountainous Kashmir.With 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, the new railway runs for 272 kilometres (169 miles) and connects Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla.It is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, to around three hours.The new route will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy and took the state under direct rule in 2019.Pakistan’s foreign ministry in a statement said India’s “claims of development… ring hollow against the backdrop of an unprecedented military presence, suppression of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary arrests, and a concerted effort to alter the region’s demography”.Around 150 people protested against the project on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”We want to tell India that building bridges and laying roads in the name of development will not make the people of Kashmir give up their demand for freedom,” said Azir Ahmad Ghazali, who organised the rally attended by Kashmiris who fled unrest on the Indian side in the 1990s.”In clear and unequivocal terms, we want to say to the Indian government that the people of Kashmir have never accepted India’s forced rule.”More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire during last month’s conflict.The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing, a charge denied by Islamabad.Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged an insurgency for 35 years demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.Modi also announced further government financial support for families whose relatives were killed, or whose homes were damaged, during the brief conflict — mainly in shelling along the heavily militarised de facto border with Pakistan, known as the Line of Control.”Their troubles are our troubles,” Modi said.

Indian police Friday detained four people including a senior executive at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after 11 fans were crushed to death during celebrations for the team’s first IPL title.Hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB cricket team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster with a stampede near M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.Karnataka state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Friday he had directed police to arrest the representatives of RCB, event organisers DNA, and Karnataka State Cricket Association.Police brought Nikhil Sosale, a senior RCB official, and three other representatives of DNA before a judge in Bengaluru, an AFP journalist saw.All four were later arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody, broadcaster NDTV reported. Siddaramaiah had earlier said a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”.The deaths have sparked widespread anger, and top police officers including the city’s police commissioner have been suspended.Local media reported that the accusations include culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, among others.There was no immediate comment from RCB.- ‘Made to pay’ -Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, also pointed the finger at some senior police.”These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” he said.The dead were aged between 14 and 29, and were among a sea of people who had poured onto the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes.RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of the victims, calling the deaths “unfortunate”.Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title.Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after the celebrations of a first IPL crown turned to tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”. Siddaramaiah has said that the stadium had a capacity of 35,000 people “but 200,000-300,000 people came”.Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events, such as religious festivals, due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.”The grim truth is that the fan, who drives the commerce of every sport, is the last priority for administrators,” The Hindu newspaper wrote in its editorial on Friday. “Asphyxia was the primary cause of death besides injuries suffered in the stifling rush,” it added. The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2 billion, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.”The world’s richest cricket tournament can’t cut corners when it comes to fans’ safety,” the Indian Express newspaper wrote in an editorial. “A fitting tribute to those dead, therefore, is not mere signing a cheque but holding those in charge responsible — ensuring that heads roll, and those who dropped the ball Wednesday are made to pay.”

Bangladesh will hold elections in early April 2026 for the first time since a mass uprising overthrew the government last year, interim leader Muhammad Yunus said Friday.The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a student-led revolt in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.”I am announcing to the citizens of the country that the election will be held on any day in the first half of April 2026,” said Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government.Political parties jostling for power have been repeatedly demanding Yunus fix an election timetable, while he has said time is needed as the country requires an overhaul of its democratic institutions after Hasina’s tenure.”The government has been doing everything necessary to create an environment conducive to holding the election,” he added in the television broadcast, while repeating his warning that reforms were needed.”It should be remembered that Bangladesh has plunged into deep crisis every time it has held a flawed election,” he said, in a speech given on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday in the Muslim-majority nation.”A political party usurped power through such elections in the past, and became a barbaric fascist force.”Hasina’s rule saw widespread human rights abuses, and her government was accused of politicising courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections.The interim government had already repeatedly vowed to hold elections before June 2026, but said the more time it had to enact reforms, the better.- Reform of ‘utmost importance’ -The key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election frontrunner, has in recent weeks been pushing hard for polls to be held by December.Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, in a speech to officers in May, also said that elections should be held by December, according to both Bangladeshi media and military sources.Days after that speech, the government warned that political power struggles risked jeopardising gains that have been made.”Those who organise such elections are later viewed as culprits, and those who assume office through them become targets of public hatred,” Yunus said on Friday.”One of the biggest responsibilities of this government is to ensure a transparent… and widely participatory election so that the country does not fall into a new phase of crisis,” he added. “That is why institutional reform is of utmost importance.”Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 after Hasina’s government launched a crackdown in a bid to cling to power, according to the United Nations.Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to her old ally India and she has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka.Her trial opened in absentia this month.Yunus said “reforms, trials, and elections” were the three “core mandates” of his government. “The sacrifices made by our students and people will be in vain if good governance cannot be established,” he said. The Election Commission will “present a detailed roadmap” for the vote “at an appropriate time”, the interim leader said without specifying a date.”We have been in dialogue with all stakeholders to organise the most free, fair, competitive, and credible election in the history of Bangladesh,” Yunus added.

Indian police arrested two people including a senior executive at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, reports said Friday, after 11 fans were crushed to death during celebrations for the team’s first IPL title.Hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB cricket team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster when 11 mainly young fans died in a stampede near M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.Karnataka state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Friday he had directed police to arrest the representatives of RCB, event organisers DNA, and Karnataka State Cricket Association.While there has been no official confirmation of the arrests, Siddaramaiah said a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”. Media outlet India Today said that Nikhil Sosale, RCB’s head of marketing, was arrested at Bengaluru’s airport.The Indian Express newspaper also reported Sosale was arrested along with an executive from an event management company.The deaths have sparked widespread anger, and top police officers including the city’s police commissioner have been suspended.Local media reported that the accusations include culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, among others.There was no immediate comment from RCB.- ‘Made to pay’ -Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, also pointed the finger at some senior police.”These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” Siddaramaiah said.The dead were aged between 14 and 29, and were among a sea of people who had poured onto the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes.RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of the victims, calling the deaths “unfortunate”.Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title on Wednesday.Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after the celebrations of a first IPL crown turned to tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”. Siddaramaiah has said that the stadium had a capacity of 35,000 people “but 200,000-300,000 people came”.Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events such as religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.”The grim truth is that the fan, who drives the commerce of every sport, is the last priority for administrators,” The Hindu newspaper wrote in its editorial on Friday. “Asphyxia was the primary cause of death besides injuries suffered in the stifling rush,” it added. The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2 billion, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.”The world’s richest cricket tournament can’t cut corners when it comes to fans’ safety,” the Indian Express newspaper wrote in an editorial. “A fitting tribute to those dead, therefore, is not mere signing a cheque but holding those in charge responsible — ensuring that heads roll, and those who dropped the ball Wednesday are made to pay.”

Mehria had been losing hope of getting a visa to emigrate to the United States but her spirits were crushed when President Donald Trump raised yet another hurdle by banning travel for Afghans.Trump had already disrupted refugee pathways after he returned to power in January but a sweeping new travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan, will go into effect on Monday.The ban changes little for most Afghans who already faced steep barriers to travel abroad, but many who had hung their hopes on a new life in the United States felt it was yet another betrayal.”Trump’s recent decisions have trapped not only me but thousands of families in uncertainty, hopelessness and thousands of other disasters,” Mehria, a 23-year-old woman who gave only one name, said from Pakistan, where she has been waiting since applying for a US refugee visa in 2022.”We gave up thousands of hopes and our entire lives and came here on a promise from America, but today we are suffering one hell after another,” she told AFP.The United States has not had a working embassy in Afghanistan since the Taliban ousted the foreign-backed government in 2021, forcing Afghans to apply for visas in third countries.The Taliban’s return followed the drawdown of US and NATO troops who had ousted them two decades earlier in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks.The Taliban government has since imposed a strict view of Islamic law and severe restrictions on women, including bans on some education and work.Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have applied for visas to settle in the United States, either as refugees or under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programme reserved for those who aided the US government during its war against the Taliban.Afghans with SIV visas and asylum cases will not be affected by Trump’s new order but family reunification pathways are threatened, the Afghan-American Foundation said in a statement condemning the ban.Some 12,000 people are awaiting reunification with family members already living in the United States, according to Shawn VanDiver, the president of the AfghanEvac non-profit group.”These are not ‘border issues’. These are legal, vetted, documented reunifications,” he wrote on social media platform X. “Without exemptions, families are stranded.” – ‘Abandoned’ -Refugee pathways and relocation processes for resettling Afghans had already been upset by previous Trump orders, suddenly leaving many Afghans primed to travel to the United States in limbo.The Trump administration revoked legal protections temporarily shielding Afghans from deportation in May, citing an improved security situation in Afghanistan.”We feel abandoned by the United States, with whom we once worked and cooperated,” said Zainab Haidari, another Afghan woman who has been waiting in Pakistan for a refugee visa. “Despite promises of protection and refuge we are now caught in a hopeless situation, between the risk of death from the Taliban and the pressure and threat of deportation in Pakistan,” said Haidari, 27, who worked with the United States in Kabul during the war but applied for a refugee visa.Afghans fled in droves during decades of conflict, but the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul saw a new wave clamouring to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.Pakistan and Iran have meanwhile ramped up deportation campaigns to expel Afghans who have crossed their borders.The Taliban authorities have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the new travel ban but have said they are keen to have good relations with every country now that they are in power — including the United States. Visa options for Afghans are already severely limited by carrying the weakest passport globally, according to the Henley Passport Index.However, travel to the United States is far from the minds of many Afghans who struggle to make ends meet in one of the world’s poorest countries, where food insecurity is rife. “We don’t even have bread, why are you asking me about travelling to America?” said one Afghan man in Kabul.Sahar, a 29-year-old economics graduate who has struggled to find work amid sky-high unemployment, said the new rules will not have any impact on most Afghans.”When there are thousands of serious issues in Afghanistan, this won’t change anything,” she told AFP.”Those who could afford to travel and apply for the visa will find another way or to go somewhere else instead of the US.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kashmir on Friday, his first visit to the contested Himalayan region since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan last month, and opened a strategic railway line.Modi is launching a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the divided Muslim-majority territory, the centre of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.His office broadcast images of Modi at a viewing point for the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long (4,314-foot-long) steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the river below.”In addition to being an extraordinary feat of architecture, the Chenab Rail Bridge will improve connectivity,” the Hindu nationalist leader said in a social media post ahead of his visit.Modi strode across the bridge waving a giant Indian flag to formally declare it open for rail traffic soon after his arrival.New Delhi calls the Chenab span the “world’s highest railway arch bridge”. While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.The new 272-kilometre (169-mile) Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway, with 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, has been constructed “aiming to transform regional mobility and driving socio-economic integration”, Modi’s office says.The bridge will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.The railway “ensures all weather connectivity” and will “boost spiritual tourism and create livelihood opportunities”, Modi said.The railway line is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Muslim-majority Kashmir, to around three hours.More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire during last month’s conflict.The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing — a charge Islamabad denies.Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged a 35-year-long insurgency demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.