Thousands of acres of uncultivable forested hills in Haryana, Gurgaon and Faridabad face the same prospect

Two decades ago when Sunil’s parents sold off 25 acres of their family’s share of land in the Mangar forests of Faridabad, they and other villagers thought the buyers were fools to buy it up because they were assured that they could continue to use it for grazing cattle and firewood. Today, 25-year-old polio-stricken Sunil has dropped all his other dreams and moves with lightning speed on his crutch, across the forest, in government offices and with fellow activists “to save the forests from a determined State government that wants to open it for colonisation.”

Earth 100, a Gurgaon-based a firm that claims to help companies reduce their carbon footprint by using greener fuel, has launched its first fleet of "100 per cent bio-diesel cars" in Gurgaon.

Gurgaon: Earth 100, a Gurgaon-based a firm that claims to help companies reduce their carbon footprint by using greener fuel, has launched its first fleet of eco-friendly “100 per cent bio-diesel cars” in Gurgaon.

Jindal Power is a major investor in the firm, while Mahindra plays a crucial role as a technology partner. Earth 100 claims to provide fully integrated green solutions, which involves modified cars, green fuel, dispensing solution, servicing and maintenance, performance tracking and quality testing.

Haryana has achieved the highest ever productivity of kharif foodgrains-2012-13 and also recorded the highest ever rice production of 39.76 lakh tonnes since the inception of the state in 1966. This has been achieved despite the state received about 36.8 per cent less rainfall as against the normal rainfall from May to September, 2012.

A spokesman for the Haryana Agriculture Department said in case of coarse rice, 23.54 lakh tonnes of production with a productivity of 40.03 quintals per hectare in an area of 5.88 lakh hectares had been achieved. “This has remained highest both in production and productivity since 1966-67,” he said. Similarly, the production of basmati rice was also achieved at 16.22 lakh tonnes with a productivity of 25.87 quintals per hectare in an area of 6.27 lakh hectares which was also the highest since 1966-67.

Another positive case of swine flu has come to light at Khatrawan village in Sirsa. Naseeb Kaur, 60-year-old woman of the village, has been found infected with the H1N1 virus.

Her sample has been found positive, confirmed the Deputy Civil Surgeon, Dr Viresh Bhushan. The woman is getting treatment at a private hospital in Sirsa. This is the sixth confirmed case of swine flu in Sirsa in the current season.

The Haryana Health Department has issued guidelines and taken steps to prevent the spread of H1N1 swine flu as 31 cases have so far been reported from the state during the current year.

A spokesman of the department said here today that nine cases had been reported from Karnal district, followed by four each from Kurukshetra and Fatehabad, three each from Hisar and Sirsa, two each from Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Panchkula and one each from Rohtak and Ambala districts. Till yesterday, nine deaths had been reported from five districts-- three in Kurukshetra, two each in Karnal and Sirsa and one each in Hisar and Gurgaon.

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Haryana government to ensure no "non-forest" activity is carried out in the forest areas of three villages - Kot, Mangar and Roz-ka-Gujjar — falling under Aravali. The tribunal has also restrained any commercial activity in Sikandarpur Ghosi village in Gurgaon, where green areas have been turned into a marble market.

"We hereby restrain carrying on of any commercial activity by construction of sheds or even the industrial activity including the sale and purchase of marble, liquor and gas warehouses in the village Sikandarpur Ghosi till the next date of hearing (February 7)," said the tribunal bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar that clubbed petitions pertaining to unauthorized activities in the forest areas.

The state government has spent over Rs 380 crore on sundry water supply projects under the Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme, according to official records.

Residents of five villages in Gurgaon whose land was acquired seven years ago by the Haryana Government for setting up of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by Reliance India Limited (RIL) have been on “dharna” at Garoli Khurd village for over a month demanding that their land be returned as the project has been shelved. Over 2,000 families are learnt to have been affected by the land acquisition.

“The Haryana Government had acquired over 1,300 acre land belonging to five villages- Garoli Khurd, Harsaru, Mohammadpur, Khandra and Narsinghpur- in 2006 for setting up industry and handed it over to Reliance for setting up of SEZ. But now that the SEZ project has been shelved, we want our land back.

Phase-I of the Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon Limited (RMGL), a network of 5.1 km connecting Cyber City, National Highway-8 and Sikanderpur Metro station, is expected to become operational in April despite slowdown of work due to extreme cold, said RMGL managing director Sanjiv Rai here on Thursday.

“Due to extreme cold conditions prevailing over the past few weeks, the de-stressing and welding of metro tracks have been delayed for a couple of weeks and work on a one-kilometre stretch is still pending. We also faced labour problems due to cold condition.