With no water tankers in sight, plantation drive a washout
The Cantonment Board's much awaited plantation drive under Vanamahotsava-2002 in Meerut turned out to be a flop show due to the dictatorial attitude of the Cantonment Board CEO K.J.S Chouhan and Executive Engineer Anuj Singh. The water tankers, tree guards and other supportive material were to be provided by the …
Destruction in Amazon persists
By decree, the official burning season in the Amazon is supposed to be severely limited in scope and not to start until Sept 15. Yet the skies south of here are already thick with smoke as big landowners set the jugle ablaze to clear the way for cattle pasture and …
Water crunch, a trigger for war?
The world's growing thirst for water is becoming a major potential trigger for war, and global warming is set to accentuate that risk, experts say. Ecologists have warned for years of a looming "water crunch," when in dry regions, the demands of a surging population could exceed the supply from …
Rs 1,200 crores for Jalasamvardhane scheme
The Centre will spend Rs 1,200 crores on the new Grameena Jalasamvardhane scheme launched by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee on Independence Day, according to Union Water Resources Minister Ajay Charan Sethi. He lauded the Karnataka Government for taking the initiative in implementing a similar scheme. He said the Centre …
RAF to eradicate ganja cultivation
The Forest Minister, Mr. K. Sudhakarn, has said a Rapid Action Force (RAF) will be set up soon in the State to eradicate ganja cultivation , which is widespread in the Attappady, Nilambur and Idukki forests. He told The Hindu that the RAF, to be equipped with the latest arms …
A $12 million plan to save the forests by buying them
The Open Space Institute, one of the largest conservation groups in the Northeast, has set aside $12 million to help land trusts protect some of the largest and best-known forest areas in the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
IFFDC wins award for wasteland recovery
The Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative Limited(IFFDC) bagged the prestigious National Award "Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award", 1999 for afforesting 26,000 ha. wasteland in the states of UP, MP and Rajasthan. The award is promoted by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited(IFFCO).
Indonesian Borneo chokes under "horrible" haze
Choking haze from forest fires has forced the indefinite closure of schools and offices in an Indonesian city on Borneo island, an official said last week. Hidayat, a meteorology official in the Central Kalimantan capital, Palangkaraya, said conditions were horrible in the city, where visibility had dropped to 10 metres …
Forests thrive in Uttaranchal
With the country concerned with the problem of decreasing forest cover, Uttaranchal, the only west Himalayan state showing an increase in annual growth rate of forest cover according to the latest statistics released by the Forest Survey of India, is still pressing ahead with greater afforestation.
SGNP fights to protect forest cover
Even as Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh sought to emulate a policy to protect 'genuine' adivasis living on forest fighting a different battle of its own - one of saving the fast depleting forest cover from encroachment and its effect. The case is true at lest for Sanjay Gandhi National …
Poor forest management blamed on lack of concrete plan
Notwithstanding substantial budget every successive year, the Forest Department of the Himachal Pradesh government appears to have failed to achieve any thing significant on the ground for the department lacked any concrete and clear cut policy on the conservation and management of forests.
M.P. lifts ban on exploitation of forests in 17 districts
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of the Chief minister, Digvijay Singh, has decided to lift the ban on exploitation of forests in 17 districts having low density forest cover. An action plan for exploitation of forests in these districts would be forwarded to the Government of …
Malaysian experts to survey Indonesia forest fires
Malaysia will send a mission to Indonesia to determine the cause of forest fires which have frequently smothered neigbouring countries in a blanket of smog, the official Bernama news agency said. For the past six weeks, bouts of haze from forest fires, mainly from Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo, have …
Govt. will evict encroachers: Bordoloi
Assam Forest Minister, Pradyut Bordoloi today said that eviction drive against encroachers of reserve forest land would continue despite several cases being slammed on the State Governments . "It is a fact that several migrated people have encroached upon reserve forest land since 1980 but the state government is determined …
Government's move to reduce forest cover
In a major development that may further threaten the already scarce forest cover in Punjab, the state government in keen to remove Section 4 of the Punjab Land Conservation Act from about 1 lakh acre. The government has moved a case before the Union government to get the said section …
Racket to give away forest land exposed
It has come to light that the Nepal government formed Squatters Problem Resolution Commission (SPRC) now dissolved had planned to register about 560 'bighas' of forest land in Morang. The defunct commission has been found to have exchanged letters with the Land Measurement Office regarding the registration of the forest …
California law permits stem cell research
Gov. Gray Davis signed a law that explicitly allows research on stem cells from fetal and embryonic tissue. The measure is meant to encourage the type of research that the Bush administration made subject to federal limits last year. State officials said they believed they were the first in the …
BJP warning on eviction of tribals from forests
The State Bhartiya Janata Party cautioned the Andhra Pradesh state government against evicting poor tribals from forest lands under the guise of implementing the Centre's recent directives on "eviction of illegal encroachment from forest lands".
'UDF leaders protecting sandal mafia'
The Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, has alleged that some top leaders of the ruling UDF are making efforts to protect the 'sandal mafia' who masterminded the looting of the strong room of the Forest Department at Olavakkode in Palakkad.
Tussle over forests : MCC kills 6 villagers
Armed MCC Naxaliters attacked a group of villagers collecting firewood from the Chumba forests in Hazaribad (Jharkhand). Six villagers were killed in the incident and 10 others seriously injured. Two of the dead were Dalits from Pathalgarh while the four others were residents of Ignuia village. But what made the …
