The State Forest Department, in a bid to create assets and popularise the concept of sandalwood estates, will take up the exercise of planting around 10 lakh sandalwood saplings in around 10,000 acres of forest land across the State.

Addressing mediapersons here on Friday, Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara said that 10 places - Kolar, Ramanagara, Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Belgaum, Dharwad, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Tumkur and Bidar - had been identified for planting sandalwood saplings.

Rs one crore offered per acre of fertile land

Landowners in 11 villages on the outskirts of the City, whose properties have been acquired for the formation of the proposed Kempegowda Layout, can now claim compensation under three slabs. The three-slab offer comes in the wake of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) hiking the land value in the 11 villages.

With this, 6 million units of electricity will be added to the grid

State-run BHEL today said it has commissioned a 250 MW unit at Harduaganj thermal power project in Uttar Pradesh. "BHEL has commissioned a 250 MW unit at Harduaganj Thermal Power Station (TPS), in Uttar Pradesh. With this, six million units of electricity will be added to the grid of the power deficit state, every day," a company statement said.

Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people who have been exposed to second-hand smoke (passive smoking).

Experts say the focus of the campaign is on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry's brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) because of the serious danger it poses to public health.

Farmers of 60 hamlets in the 10 revenue villages in Tiruchengode taluk through which the Cochin to Bangalore gas pipeline is being laid have opposed the works. A ‘Vivasayegal Valvathara Pathugapu Kuzhu' (Farmer's Livelihood Protection Committee) to protect the interest of farmers who will be affected by the project, was also formed.

Its president S. Rajavel said that the pipeline runs through fields in Kokarayanpettai, Thokavadi, Karumakavundampalayam, T.Kavundampalayam, Varagooraanpatti, Paapampalayam, Thevankurichi, Yemapalli, Karuveppampatti and O. Rajapalayam revenue villages and affect more than 300 farmers and about 800 acres of cultivation.

Several farmers here are up in arms against the proposed Gas Authority of India Ltd project to lay a pipeline from Kochi to Bangalore via Erode district for transporting gas.

Incriminating documents seized, says investigating agency

Water woes for Bangaloreans will continue with fresh government data demonstrating that the current level of water supply in India's IT capital is almost four thousand million cubic metre short of the requirement, exposing 22 lakh people to water scarcity every year.

Every drop countsThe shortfall is in the prevailing situation. If City aquifers become barren due to over-exploitation, an additional 24 lakh will have a tough time getting their daily water supply from civic authorities, geologists have forewarned. The warning is based on water data collected by the Karnataka government's mines and geology department from 10 deep wells in Bangalore, between April and December 2011.

The area under forest cover in Karnataka has increased by four square kilometres, according to a latest report of the Forest Survey of India. It says the change has been noticed in the assessment year of 2009, compared to the survey carried out in 2008. The report was put in the public domain recently.

Sources in the State government told The Hindu that the change for the better was being seen for the first time in about a decade. What was noteworthy was that at a time when forests were being “plundered in terms of their flora and fauna and conservationists facing a tough challenge,” the increase, though negligible, marks a refreshing change.”