Call for total revamp of Forest Department
The Estimates Committee of the Kerala State Assembly has called for a total revamp of the Forest and Wildlife Department with a cut in staff strength at the top level, creating of a crime topper cell, use of computer aided cartography to gather information about forests in the State as …
Choppers to Kedarnath cancelled as forest burns
As parts of the country reel under a heavy drought, Uttaranchal is fighting another summer menace: forest fires. Five lives have been lost and around 2,000 hectares of forest land gutted in the last two days in the state's Garhwal and Kumaon hills. The worst-affected regions include Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Tehri …
Govt and DU to develop 2,100 acres of forests
The Eco Task Force of the Territorial Army and Centre for Environment of the Delhi University are rehabilitating 2,100 acres of the Bhatti sanctuary. According to a press release, Forest and Wildlife Minister Deep Chand Bandhu on World Environment Day said that the Centre for Environment Management of Delhi University …
Activists identify most endangered U.S. forests
Americans concerned about global deforestation need look no further than their own backyards for endangered forests, environmentalists say. A new report released this week by forest activists documents U.S. forests at continued risk from mismanagement and commercial logging, and takes aim at Bush administration's policies that they believe are further …
UN urges world to get serious about water issues
Water is the world's most precious commodity but many global leaders worry that it is not treated as such. Today United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the world to address global water issues to help "two billion of our fellow human beings who are dying for want of water …
HC order on vehicles to be advertised
The West Bengal state government has decided to advertise the order of the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court of 4 April in newspapers to ensure that all vehicles plying in Kolkata Metropolitan Area conform to Bharat Stage-II emission standards "within a year from this date.
Free-flow options for clean drinking water
Fast perishing aquifers due to indiscriminate vertical and horizontal growth, piecemeal and sectoral solutions rather than a holistic and integrated approach, scant regard for bio-diversity, no plan for rainwater harvesting, poor management and distribution. Calcutta, like many other Asian megacity, is sitting on the doorstep of a major ecological disaster …
State bags three forestry awards
The Andhra Pradesh bagged three out of the four cash awards presented by the Dehradun based Indian Council of forestry research and education, an autonomous organisation under the Union ministry of environment and forests, for outstanding contribution in the fields of social forestry, forest research and forest extension for the …
60% trees dead due to smoke from tempos
Due to smoke emanating from the tempos running in Kanpur, around 60% trees dried. The government had planted around 12,000 trees of which more than 7,000 dried. The Forest department has blamed the ever growing pollution which is causing this.
Sandalwood smuggling rampant: Panel
The estimate committee headed by E.T Muhammed Basheer MLA said that smuggling of sandalwood and other forest products has become rampant in Kerala State during the last two years. Briefing mediapersons on the findings of the estimate committee, Basheer said that the forest mafia was operating with the support of …
Wasteland project implemented
The centrally sponsored scheme of integrated wastelands development project, has been implemented to develop non forest wastelands on village/microwatershed basis, according to a spokesman for the Punjab Rural Development Department, the scheme helps generate employment in rural areas besides enhancing people's participation in wasteland development.
20 Mumbai estates built on forest scam land
The forest department in Maharashtra has finally realised that a major chunk of its land has been surreptitiously sold off and that sprawling weekend bungalows have come up on it. Actor Salman Khan's bungalow at Panvel was attached a year ago because it was constructed on forest land. But nothing …
`Pak bug` bugging trees in Rajasthan
A borer pest, commonly known as the "Pakistan bug", has badly hit trees in western Rajasthan, resulting in the large scale mortality of Khejri trees one of the most precious xerophyte trees of Western Rajasthan.
Get this: PWD finds trees `illegal`
The Tamil Nadu state government's latest addition to the tree hacking campaign. Declare plants, trees and lush shrubs illegal and order them hacked, removed or uprooted. At Worli, the Public Works Department(PWD) has served a notice to residents for planting shrubs.
Bandhs bring tainted image but fresh air!
Bandhs called at the drop of a hat in West Bengal might paralyse life and industry, scare prospective investors and tarnish the West Bengal state's image in the rest of the country, but the truth is bandhs make us all breathe easier. While comparison to a partial bandh day shows …
Brazilian police hunt for forest company owners
Brazilian Federal Police are searching for three owner-directors of a forest company that spilled toxic waste into two rivers in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janiero last March. A judge has ordered that they be taken into custody, but to date they have eluded police. In Campos last week, …
Forest fire claims one life in Kasauli; hundreds of trees perish
Khem Bahadur was killed and Ram Singh and Bhim Bahadur sustained severe burns in the forest fire that broke out in Kararadev and Sari forest near the Kasauli Club in Himachal Pradesh. Assistant conservator of forest P.R. Mahajan said that in Karadev and Sari forests near Kasauli spread over 190 …
River linking: Desarda sees motives
The much vaunted river linking project is designed just to fill the pockets of the lobby of engineers, contractors and their political godfathers who are attracted by the kickbacks involved in the project. This expensive project would in no way benefit the drought prone states, stated former member of State …
Future of NE lying with its forests: NEC
The NE region of the country is not backward. It is resourceful and has the potential to emerge as the centre of development in the country, said secretary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) PL Thanga here today. Thanga, who was inaugurating a two-day regional workshop on
