Bikemaker Plans To Set Up . 300-cr Plant

Ahmedabad: Gujarat’s Detroit dream seems to be on a fast lane. After Hero MotoCorp announcing a Rs 1,100-crore plant in the state, Korea’s Hyosung superbikes are all set to get a madein-Gujarat tag.

AHMEDABAD: The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has made it mandatory for the food and drugs department of every state to test for harmful bacteria like e coli in milk this year. This apart, the milk producers too will have to test for bacterial content like staphaureus and listeria monocytogenes before pushing it into the market. The new set of standards was first introduced across the nation in August 2011. The producers will have to declare on their packets that the milk is certified e coli, staphaureus and listeria monocytogenes free. The FSSAI has laid down standards for 10 types of milk that include buffalo, cow, goat or sheep, mixed, standardized, re-combined, toned, double-toned, skimmed and full-cream milk.

AHMEDABAD: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India may have painted a dismal picture of pollution in Gujarat, but the latest report of Planning Commission's environment and forest division reveals that the state has shown significant improvement in handling environment and pollution-related issues.

Last year, the Planning Commission put Gujarat at number 16 in the overall environment ranking among 35 states and union territories. This year, the state has jumped 11 notches to secure 5th rank.

Vadodara Has 46 Trees Per Hectare Which Is Way Above State Average

Vadodara: The Banyan city is growing by leaps and bounds but it is still breathing fresh air compared to bigger cities in Gujarat. A tree census done by the forest department and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) in the city limits has revealed that the city’s residents are far luckier when it comes to fresh air and green cover. Vadodara has 7,47,193 trees spread over an area of 16,261 hectares. The survey was done for several months in 25 wards of VMC.

6.5 L of 9.19 L Saplings Planted During Swarnim Gujarat Have Died

Ahmedabad:This is one green record nobody in the government wants to remember. Over 9.19 lakh tree saplings were planted across Ahmedabad on July 31, 2010 as part of Swarnim Gujarat celebrations. Chief Minister Narendra Modi had joined 25,000-odd volunteers to contribute to the green movement. Claims for the green glory were also made to the Guinness Book of World Records. Two years later, more than 6.5 lakh saplings have withered away. In some zones, the ground looks dry, flat and hardly betrays a sign that trees were ever planted there.

Forest Department Says It Does Not Want To Lose Sympathy Of Locals

Rajkot: Gujarat’s forest department is facing a strange dilemma. Officials would like to book people who harass the Asiatic Lion in Gir and surrounding areas so that they can teach the pranksters a lesson and set an example. But if they do take legal recourse, they fear losing the sympathy of locals, an important factor in the successful conservation of the wild cat in its last home in the world.

Vadodara: The World Heritage Site of Champaner-Pavagadh is home to a heritage of the avian kind. The tough terrain of Pavagadh mountain is home to threatened vultures and nine of them were spotted in the two-day census exercise conducted by GEER Foundation and forest department.

The teams also monitored a place where the vultures nest in the cliffs during the exercise that ended on Sunday. While officials said the number of vultures spotted at the location are equal to those spotted earlier, they are worried about the fact that only one Egyptian vulture or Khero Gidh that is white-backed was spotted in the mountain valleys.

A Recent Study Notes 13 Direct Sightings Of The Mammal In Gulf Of Kutch

Ahmedabad: The rare dugong, also known as ‘sea cow’, is happily grazing underwater off the Gujarat coast. Until now, wildlife experts had known about the existence of the marine mammal largely through carcasses being washed ashore along the state and sightings by fishermen. But now there is some concrete evidence.

City, Mahuva Identified Among 6 Vulture Safe Zones In The Country

Ahmedabad/Mahuva: Vulture conservation in Gujarat has got a major boost with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) selecting Mahuva and Ahmedabad among the six provisional vultures’ safe zones (VSZ) in India. Within three years, vultures successfully bred in captivity under the BNHS’s Save Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) programme will be released in their natural environments in Mahuva.

AHMEDABAD: The forest department has, after a successful hatching programme, decided to go in for satellite telemetry tagging of the turtle. This would help them know the movement of the turtles and even track them.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma, chief conservator of forests said that the project will be taken up under the World Bank aided ongoing Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project. He further said that the department will start a turtle hatchery with modern equipment and gadgets in Mandvi to further intensify the efforts of turtle hatching and conservation.