: Is there a winwin formula to involve private participation in preserving the country's green cover? The environment ministry is contending with a proposal to allow private funding into greening of the government-held reserve forests and in return letting them earn carbon credits. Though at a nascent stage, the discussions could lead to a new format to get private funding into the forestry sector that faces a serious cash-crunch. The discussions in the ministry come after government put an end to a far more controversial move to hand over degraded forest lands to private players

Chandigarh, February 18 With an aim to plant over a million trees in the city this year, UT Administrator Gen S F Rodrigues (retd) today launched a plantation drive at Saketri village. He also released Green Chandigarh Action Plan ' 2008. Stating that Chandigarh has a green cover of 35.6 per cent, Rodrigues stressed on the need to make the city greener by planting maximum number of trees possible. The Green Action Plan released by the Administrator stated that during the year 2007-08, 14,9723 saplings were planted against the target of 10,9170 in the Union Territory.

twelve species of medicinal plants preferred by Uttarakhand villagers for their many uses are now rare and endangered, and one near threatened. These are the findings of a recent study by the

To protect the country's food supply, the Chinese government has suspended a plan to convert farmland into forest. The move is to meet its pledge to keep at least 120 million hectares (ha) of arable