Delhi
On June 7, 2000, the Delhi Jal Board and the Municipal Corporation announcement that they would create 150 ponds for rainwater harvesting. TAPAS, a non-governmental organisation, approached the Delhi
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Govt to review khair wood policy
Forest minister J.P. Nadda today said the government would soon review the policy for exporting Khair wood and kuth to help protect the economic interests of the farmers. Presiding over a meeting of senior officers to review the functioning of the Forest Department here he said the government would consider relaxing the restriction on export of Kuth and take effective steps for proper management and exploitation of herbal plants. It would also take a decision regarding the rights of ownership on the trees grown on uncultured land, after considering all related aspects into consideration and in consultation with the Revenue Department. He said steps would be taken to exploit the state's immense potential for eco-tourism to help generate self-employment avenues for unemployed youth. Referring to the plans to deal with the monkey menace, Nadda said the government had decided to set up two primate protection parks and a number of centres for mass sterilisation of the animals, which were not only creating nuisance in towns but also causing extensive damage to crops in villages. He said a sterilisation centre was already operational at Tutukandi in Shimla and two more would be set up at Gopalpur in Kangra district and Tal in Hamirpur district at a cost of Rs 2.6 crore. He said these centres would be made operational within six months and a target had been set up for sterilising 5,000 monkeys in two years at each centre. The forest minister said the primate protection parks would be set up on the lines of Asola wildlife sanctuary in Delhi. One such park would be started next month at Tara Devi near Shimla, whereas, the other would be set up at Jheen in Hamirpur district. He said Rs 1.51 crore would be spent on the construction of each park. Youth were being imparted training for catching monkeys so that they could earn from the government scheme. He said encouraging cultivation of herbal plants on commercial scale could strengthen economy and the effort would be that each family in the local panchayat was associated in the venture. He said the Forest Department would develop plant nurseries in every district depending upon the climatic condition and mater would be discussed with the Ayurveda Department. He said peoples' participation was an important aspect of forest management and asserted that policy decisions should be taken keeping in view the public grievances. He said regular discussions would be held with field the officers for effective implementation of projects. Additional chief secretary, forests, Avay Shukla, gave a detailed account of the activities of the department. He said the policies were framed keeping in view the public interest.
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Sikkim, growing hub of illegal wildlife trade
The World Wildlife Fund today warned that Sikkim might become the next hub of international illegal wildlife through Nathu La border trade. Nathu La trade route is the shortest route to Tibet region of China, which has wooed the wildlife traders, WWF programme officer Dwaipayan Banerjee said highlighting on measures to check such trade through Indo-Nepal and Indo-China border. "If we don't act soon, Sikkim may be listed as the next hotspot of trans-border trade after Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal,' Banerjee said while addressing a gathering of forest officials, tour operators, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and eco-tourism societies here. "We need to realize that wildlife crime is slowly creeping in and take immediate steps to curb it,' State forest department Chief Wildlife Warden N T Bhutia said, adding that there was a need to tighten security near Nathu La border. Sikkim with a geographical area of only 0.2 per cent has 27 per cent of the nation's biodiversity and is listed in the ten most critical centres for bio-diversity and endemism as it shares border with Nepal, Bhutan and Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of China.Nathu La border, where trade between Sikkim and TAR had started since 2006, is only 64 km away from here. Dongqingang, the nearest mart in TAR was mere half-an-hour distance from the international border. Conservator of Forests C Lanchungpa informed that medicinal plants of the state were being smuggled across the border in small volumes. "A big consignment of red sandalwood, meant for TAR, had been seized by Sikkim police on November 30 last year,' he said, adding that the State possesses almost 50 per cent of the butterfly species of the whole subcontinent with some being rare and endangered. He further said three French students were caught red-handed on July last year by state wildlife officers while they were catching butterflies and moths from a reserve forest in West Sikkim. "Various enforcement agencies and tour operators along with the locals need to come together to check the menace,' he added.
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Training on bamboo as alternative to wood
Often termed as poor man's timber, bamboo, with its various new applications can well be an alternative housing solution for the earthquake prone areas due to its high tensile strength structurally. Exploring the use of bamboo as an alternative to the rapidly depleting wood resources in housing and other industrial activities, a three-day residential training programme on modern bamboo structures and housing will be organised at Kohra, Kaziranga National Park from March 6 to 8, 2008. The programme is jointly organised by Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre and Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The programme aims to provide technical know-how on the use of the bamboo technology as a whole, particularly in the housing sector and in varied structural applications. "For the first time a workshop of such magnitude on bamboo technology is being organised in Kaziranga dealing with the new applications of bamboo other than the traditional use,' said the sources in the CBTC. The programme, targeting the civil engineers, architects, consultants, builders, developers contractors, entrepreneurs and NGOs among others, would have partici-pants mainly from North East as well as neighbouring Nepal. The training programme would elaborately deal with the topics including bamboo of NE India, availability and suitability for building construction, the structure of bamboo and its mechanical and engineering properties, durability and preservation of bamboo, code an standards bamboo in building construction, bamboo structures for eco-tourism and earthquake prone areas, introduction to bamboo applications for industrial and housing materials, engineered bamboo products and its usefulness in housing industry, bamboo construction for rural housing and bamboo policies and impact on national and regional developmental issues. In order to tap the abundant bamboo resources of the North East; the North Eastern Council (NEC) launched the North East Regional Bamboo Mission aimed at sustainable development of the bamboo sector. The CBTC, established in 2000 is a registered body under the auspices of the NEC, which is carrying out the mandate of the North East Bamboo Mission since October 2004. The CBTC has now undertaken a wide range of bamboo constructions in and around the NE region both in public and private sectors. On the other hand, the BMTPC is actively involved in developing bamboo-based technologies and promoting those technologies in the bamboo growing areas including the North East.
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Centre allocates Rs 600 cr for tigers in new plan
The Centre-sponsored Project Tiger Scheme has sent out a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to states as part of a new Five Year Plan that has allocated Rs 600 crore for the cause of the tiger. In keeping with the new-found urgency to preserve the dwindling numbers of tigers, the MoU has asked for all progress to be monitored through photo catalogues and videographing. There are 28 tiger reserves in 17 states. "So far, the states have not had any scope for reciprocal commitment in terms of tiger conservation. We have found that conservation of the tiger is a shared responsibility which the states have to commit to through the MoU. After the MoU has been signed, the Centre will release fund for Project Tiger in the new fiscal year in March,' said Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of National Tiger Conservation Authority. In a meeting last week, the Prime Minister had reviewed the new tiger census, and had asked chief ministers to take "personal responsibility' for the tigers in their states. The tiger count is at an all time low with only 1,411 in the wild. "The scheme will be strictly monitored. All activities will have to be catalogued through photos. For some activities, we will ask for videographing for our permanent records. For activities like relocation of tribals from critical tiger habitats, we will have photo cataloguing at every stage,' Gopal stressed. More than 70 per cent of the budgetary allocations have been done for facilitating rehabilitation of tribals and people living in the critical or core tiger habitats. Out of Rs 600 crore, Rs 345 crore has been allocated for deciding inviolate spaces for wildlife and relocation of villagers from reserves within a timeframe, which includes a revised pay package of Rs 10 lakh per family for relocation. While states have to delineate buffer zones, extending up to 10 km from tiger reserves, families living in buffer zones will be involved in eco-tourism. This means that the tiger's critical habitat within the reserves will not be disturbed by the Forest Rights Act. The security net
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PM reviews tiger conservation status
Concerned over declining number of tigers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today promised further enhancement of financial and organisational support to save the big cats in the country. At a meeting called to review tiger conservation status and functioning of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, he expressed concern over declining tiger population but added that recent estimates of tiger population could not be compared with earlier estimates. The Prime Minister said the government was fully committed to tiger conservation and that the Centre would further enhance financial and organisational support for efforts in this direction. Besides, he would also call a conference of chief ministers of states with tiger reserves to put in place a coordinated response to the challenge of tiger conservation. Based on a new methodology, the Centre recently released a report on the status of tigers titled "Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India'. The report pegged the tiger numbers at an all-time low of 1411, confirming the worst fears of tiger conservationists about the state of big cats in India. The report was prepared by Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India and the National Tiger Conservation Authority after two years of extensive data collection. However, some stakeholder states like Orissa rejected the new count, saying that the camera-trap methodology adopted to count the numbers was faulty. Ever since the release of the report, tiger conservationists demand that Centre should take emergency steps to save the national animal and that the Prime Minister should call a meeting of chief ministers of states with tiger reserves. Assuring that the government was fully committed to tiger conservation and the Central government would further enhance financial and organisational support for efforts in this direction, the Prime Minister today said the Centre would fund modernisation of tiger reserves management, including recruitment of staff from local population and providing them adequate equipment. He also sought a state-specific strategy for such central assistance. The government had recently approved an enhanced relocation package of up to Rs 10 lakh per family for families living in tiger reserves. Schemes for rehabilitation of traditional hunters, for supporting new tiger reserves; for supporting eco-tourism benefiting local communities; for deployment of anti-poaching staff and, for improving service conditions of forest officers had also been taken up. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of concerned state governments paying focused attention. He said the chief ministers had been asked to take personal charge of tiger conservation and forest management.
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A law that lacks depth
Loopholes surface in Goa s new groundwater regulation
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Time to tell the truth again
I really hope we are proved wrong when we say there are no tigers left in the Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan. But if it is so, what is now increasingly accepted as a sad fact should actually make
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Illegal buildings trigger erosion, threaten Puri beach
people living in Sipasarubali near the coast in Puri, Orissa, are under threat. Waves have swept away parts of a beach in this popular tourist spot. While local residents are perturbed and visitors
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BRAZIL
Amapa, one of the poorest states of Brazil, has won plaudits for its development model. Spearheading the change is Joao Alberto Capiberibe, a former guerrilla who is now governor of the
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Arctic rush driven by desire to control hydrocarbon deposits, shipping routes
In 1937, Ivan Papanin led an expedition that planted the Soviet flag on the North Pole. He was feted by Stalin and lionised as a Soviet hero. In early August this year, the Kremlin honoured Artur
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View from the top
Planners must stop looking down at hill stations
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For the chop
South Africa to ban asbestos
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KENYA
The Masais of Loita, semi-nomadic tribals who are jealously guarding one of the few remaining indigenous forests in East Africa, are in a state of despair. The Kenyan government's recent decision to
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Twice Unlucky
In 1962, it was the Indo Chinese war. Now it is the creation of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. Once again, the Bhotiyas, who inhabit the Garhwal hills, find themselves at crossroads. They find their means of sustenance cut off. The difference this tim
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Snippets
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade has now become international law. The convention enables
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SOUTH AFRICA
At least 20 species of South African fish are under serious threat, according to the country's environmental aff airs and tourism minister, Valli Moosa. A decision to restrict catch quotas is on the
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Marooned!
Island states feel isolated
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SOUTH AFRICA
Six live coelacanths, a rare species of fish, were recently sighted by divers in St Lucia Marine Protected Area, off the north eastern coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. "This means there
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"I want to hand over the forests to the people"
Forests have been the root cause of the struggle for statehood. In an interview with DOWN TO EARTH, Uttaranchal's first chief minister NITYANAND SWAMI says he intends transferring power to gram panchayats