Fuel cells hit the road
This week two nails were hammered into the coffin of the internal-combustion engine. The first came when Toyota and General Motors, which between them make a quarter of world's cars, signed a pact to develop alternatives. These include battery-powered cars, "hybrid" vehicles that have both electric and petrol engines, and …
State leads in drip irrigation
With over one lakh hectares under drip irrigation, Maharashtra is leading the nation in adopting this highly sustainable method of irrigaiton, according to a research study by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Curbs on timber movement always necessary
HC : It is always necessary to have a check on the movement of timber. If allowed uncontrolled, it would lead to destruction of forest wealth and would be violative of the Constitution, the Madras High Court has observed.
Youth to traverse virgin forests
The Kerala State Youth Welfare Board has drawn up a programme for a 36-day-long trek by about 35 youth across the forests of Kerala, with rather conflicting objectives. The young men and women would trek about 600 km of forest tracts from Neyyar in Thiruvananthapurm district to Panathur in Kasaragod …
HP forest cover below minimum norm
Despite spending a whopping Rs 520 crore on the afforestation programme over the past 45 years, the forest cover in Himachal has not exceeded 22.5 per cent of the total geographical area, which was far below the minimum norm of 66 per cent laid down in the national forest policy.
Maya throne may reveal answers to old mystery
In rain forests at the foot of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexican and U.S. archaeologists have uncovered a monumental artwork that appears to be one of the most revealing artifacts that has been found from the resplendant but mysterious final years of ancient Mayan civilization.
Wild forest fires rage Uttar Pradesh hills
Wild summer fires continue to devastate large forest tracts in the UP hills. In the four-year cycle, this time about 60,000 hectares of green cover in Garhwal and Kumaon is reported to have been gutted though summer has just begun. Four years ago, in 1995, about 80,000 hectors of forests …
Florida's largest fire in 10 yrs
Firefighters brought Florida's largest fire in ten years largely under control, but only after flames burning wildly for four days left huge swathes of the state charred, forestry officials reported.
Manage forests properly
Depleted as Nepal's forest cover has already been due to population pressure and smuggling of timber, whatever little had been regained as a result of regeneration efforts also suffered a terrible setback this dry season. Raging fires about a month or so ago reduced vast tracts of forests in the …
Forest department blamed for Nagarhole fire
Tribal Joint Action(TJA), a confederation of over a dozen Non Governmental organisations(NGOs), has demanded Forests Minister D Manjunath to prove his charge alleging them to be behind the recent forest fire in the Nagarhole National Park or else step down.
200-year-old mango grove facing the axe
A 200-year-old mango grove may be among the casualties of the proposed Bangalore Mysore Expressway. The trees are in Sompura village of Kengeri Hobli, Bangalore Rural District, Mr. Honnappa, a retired revenue official, owns the 34-acre farm where the mangoes grow. According to him, the trees were old even during …
300 'sheesham' trees felled
More than 300 sheesham trees have allegedly been felled and sold illegally by a resident of Jhindwala village in the past few months as the authorities concerned failed to check him due to his "high political connections". Known as "mint Veerappan of Punjab" in the State Forest Department, he has …
Leasehold forest programmes to uplift the poor
Goma Danuwar's family has been through a very bad time, with no employment or regular source of income, they had to struggle to make their ends meet. Five years on, there's been remarkable improvement in the 25-year old lady's socio-economic status. Thanks largely to the Hills Leasehold Forestry and Forage …
Army institutes court of enquiry
Army authorities have instituted a court of enquiry, under a Brigadier, to go into the allegations of illegal felling of trees by the Army in the forests of Sonitpur district. This was conveyed by Governor Lt. Gen (retd) S K Sinha, to State Assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum through a letter …
Forest fight
The Administration has taken a number of steps to reduce timber cutting in the Tongass National Forest America's largest in Alaska. The constraints are a welcome improvement on past policy which was too lax. Proof of their virtue may be the fact that the state's powerful congressional delegation already has …
Row over legal status of forest land
The immense pressure on national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh these days can be gauged from a recent order passed by the authorities in Shivpuri district to exclude 2,062.05 hectares of land from the extension area of Madhav National Park, notified in 1983, to pave way for the …
'Treeman honoured'
'Treeman' Vishweshar Dutt Saklani, who has single-handedly planted more than 400,000 in Dehra Dun region, has been conferred with the Virasat Samman 99 award by organisers of the 10-day cultural festival which concluded in the Doon valley recently.
Irrigation hampered in 16 N districts
Some 8,000 deep and shallow tubewells are lying inoperative for long affecting irrigation on about two lakh acres of land in 16 northern districts of Bangladesh. The authorities did not take any step to repair the disordered tube-wells so far that raised apprehension among the farmers on achieving the production …
Normal water flow in Gorai river restored
The River Gorai which was heavily silted up and lost her navigability for months together during the lean period is now flowing again much to the surprise and joy of the people living on the either side of the river bank from Kushtia to the Sunderbans (Bangladesh). This has been …
Everglades ablze as brush fires torch state
Vast swaths of the Florida Everglades were ablaze as winds whipped up more brush fires in the parched state. The fires forced the closure of Interstate 75th the main east-west highway through the giant swamp, known as Alligator Alleyfor a third day. The fire has eaten 100,000 acres of the …
