1,500 NSS volunteers to plant 20,000 saplings in Karunapuram

The National Service Scheme of Mahatma Gandhi University, in association with Kerala State Biodiversity Board and the Social Forestry Division of Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary has opened a mega camp here as part of the Haritha Gramam Project of the grama panchayat with a view to create a green belt in the areas bordering Tamil Nadu.

Itanagar: The National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has assured to provide fund to the Arunachal Pradesh Bamboo Resource and Development Agency (APBRDA) to boost the bamboo plantation of the State.

NBM deputy director general Kameshwar Ojha made this assurance when APBRDA vice chairman Yora Tagung called on him at New Delhi yesterday, official sources said here today.

The State Forest Department will spend nearly Rs. 6 crore for maintenance of degraded plantations raised on 47,000 hectares and carry out buffer zone activities in 230 villages this year.

Along with activities under infrastructure improvement, forestry extension, research, monitoring and evaluation and GIS, the buffer zone activities will be carried out this year under Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project (Phase II). The project is being implemented from 2005-06 to 2012-13 with an outlay of Rs. 567 crore in 950 villages (800 under Japan International Cooperation Agency and 150 under State funds).

VASCO: Environment Minister Alina Saldanha has warned that those involved in illegal felling of trees are severely penalised to serve as a deterrent to others.

At a tree plantation drive at Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao, on Thursday, Saldanha was informed that culprits generally go scot-free with a paltry fine for illegal felling of trees. She assured to bring it to the notice of the forest department and ensure that those involved in illegal felling of trees are fined heavily to serve as a deterrent to others.

New Delhi: India has lost hundreds of acres of forest cover, mostly in North East but this was largely due to various reasons like shifting cultivation, rotational harvesting and biotic pressures besides tree felling.

The largest dip in forest cover was in the North East which lost 550 sq km. This loss was very partially made up elsewhere, even as there was an overall negative growth in green cover, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, has said in Parliament recently.

Beijing's afforestation watchdog has said it will turn to satellite monitoring to expose fake green drives in the city and prevent the misuse of plantation funds, local media reported on Tuesday.

Gandhinagar: In a systematic blow to high accolades Gujarat received from the Centre over the “net increase in the mangrove cover”, reports from Jambusar in Bharuch in south Gujarat suggest that things may now be moving in the opposite direction. The reports point to the coastal areas in Gulf of Khambhat where the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) and NGOs jointly developed dense mangroves plantations.

The government has received a complaint from a civil society activist, who happens to be a member of the state-sponsored Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, that heavy mangroves plantation is in the danger of being wiped out.

To be labelled with FSC logo highlighting the PSU’s environmental concerns

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has granted certificates in Forest Management and Chain of Custody to Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL). This could enable TNPL products to be labelled with the FSC logo highlighting the PSU’s social and environmental concerns and contributions. FSC is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation established by leading social, environmental and economic players to promote responsible management of forests. FSC issues certificates in Forest Management (FM) and Chain of Custody (CoC).

Haryana’s forest cover might be only one-sixth of the target that the state has set for itself by 2020 but this has not stopped the state government from eyeing more green areas for development act