Affidavit filed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam in the matter of news item titled "the last feral horses in India" appearing in Mongabay, November 5, 2024. The matter relates to the critically endangered status of feral horses in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park as well as of smuggling of these …
THE Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NFEJ) is celebrating transmission of 250 episodes of Aankhijhyal, a programme on environmental, social and sustainable development concerns. Aankhijhyal is an impact-oriented investigative programme that has managed to gain an impressive audience in Nepal. Issues such timber smuggling, glacial lake outbursts and outbreak of …
More than 24 people were accused in the land and forest scam in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. However, no action was taken against the culprits. Taking serious note of this, an empowered committee constitued by the Supreme Court reprimanded the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments and the Central Bureau …
hundreds of trees were hacked recently near Gosaba in the Sunderbans in West Bengal. The felling is said to be the handiwork of timber smugglers. However, no action has been taken against the culprits till now. According to forest department authorities, the trees were chopped down over a two-kilometre stretch …
The women of Dengajharia non-descript village in Orissahave broken through ages of gender and caste oppression to pioneer a revolutionary forest protection movement in their village. When the men called it quitsit was the women from this village in Nayagarh district who took up cudgels. The once densely forested areas …
JHARKHAND. FOR most, the word conjures up the happy image of a fledgling state finding its feet. But for the indigenous people of Saranda it has come to signify an unending struggle to save their way of life and habitat. Worse still, the authorities solely blame the tribal communities for …
The Union ministry of urban development has issued a notification stipulating that construction activities that create noise will not be allowed after 10 pm. However, construction of highways, roads, and other government undertakings has been excluded from the purview of the regulation. At the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of …
A recent survey reveals that the timber mafia is involved in cutting old sheesham trees growing along canals in Pakistan. It has also stated a strange method is employed to fell the trees: either the trunks of the trees are peeled off or their roots are damaged. This leads to …
in warangal, Andhra Pradesh, there is only one black Ambassador car in the official circle and it belongs to the conservator of forests. Painting the car black some 15 years ago was a conscious decision to evade attacks. The black Ambassador drives home the fear psychosis that has gripped the …
Left helpless, the affected states have started demanding amendments to the fca. About a year ago, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh wrote to the prime minster requesting changes in the act. When the coordination committee of the Union home ministry met in April 2000, one of the main issues …
Room number eight is located in a nondescript corner of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (aiims), New Delhi. Gauri Prasad regularly visits this room, which stores medical histories of cancer patients. A resident of Panipat, Haryana, Prasad has been afflicted with lymphoma for the past five years. Now …
We are not supposed to keep on publishing the report,' says N K Ganguly, director-general, icmr. "We are supposed to carry out research and cannot spend money on a particular project,' he justifies. It is as if icmr's cancer data is protected under the Officials Secrets Act. Repeated requests to …
The registries would have helped formulate a control programme . But in absence of the data, the nccp has been forced to source information from other places. "We use World Health Organisation's projections,' says Sudhir Gupta, chief medical officer, directorate general of health services at the mohfw. Ironically, the ncrp …
As prime minister A B Vajpayee was reminding the nation about threats from across the border in his Independence Day speech from Delhi's Red Fort this year, a group of extreme Leftist outfits, popularly known as Naxalites, were redrawing the internal map of the country. At a secret meeting held …
the Kerala High Court (hc) has directed the collector of Wayanad district to prevent extraction of timber from plantations in the region. The official has been told to ensure that various state departments do not abet the cutting and removal of trees from both forests and patta (title deed) land …
The Supreme Court recently ruled that forest authorities are entitled to confiscate not only illegally felled timber but also implements and tools used for illegal activities. Allowing the appeal of the West Bengal government against the judgement of the Calcutta High Court, the apex court clarified that the power to …
the forest department in Gujarat has adopted a novel method to curb teakwood smuggling. Not only has it stepped up the heat on the Veerappans of the region, it is also keeping tabs on illegal operators involved in the final sale of the stolen logs. The result: a teakwood haul …
Early this month, the Karnataka legislative assembly passed the much-awaited legislation to deregulate the sandalwood business, by lifting government monopoly over sandalwood. The Karnataka Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2001 will now allow cultivation of sandal trees in private lands and the government will also revise its cost. The Bill comes as …
A new legislation has been introduced in Cambodia to curb illegal logging. As per the new rules, offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined as much as us $2,500. The country's prime minister, Hun Sen, has vowed to resign if his government fails to stop the …
The Supreme Court of India has directed the chief secretaries of the seven north-eastern states to file reports about the action taken against officials responsible for illegal felling of trees and transportation of timber outside the region. Large-scale felling of trees has destroyed many forests of the region. The court …
