New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday agreed to hear a body of farmers and villagers in the case filed by Nirma Ltd against Union environment ministry’s decision to revoke the green nod for its Bhavnagar cement plant in Gujarat, rejecting the company’s opposition.

Nirma had moved the tribunal challenging the December 1 order of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) revoking the environmental clearance granted to it on December 11, 2008 for its 1.91 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity cement plant, 1.5 MTPA coke oven plant and 50 MW captive power plant at Bhavnagar.

MAHUVA: Have poachers become active near Gir National Park again? Missing claws of a lion that died a year ago and a cub that has been missing for nearly 50 days indicate that all is not well in the lion's abode.

A 10-month-old lion cub in this range has been missing since March 5 and the forest department has no clue about its disappearance. K S Randhawa, deputy conservator of forests, Bhavnagar, denied that a cub has been missing but senior forest officials confirmed to TOI that the cub has indeed been traceless.

AHMEDABAD: At least nine leopards have been killed by villagers in Saurashtra, Banaskantha and Dang in the last five years. Of these, five were killed in Saurashtra region alone.

"Leopards are being killed in the region where people take care of another big cat - the Asiatic lions. Even if a farmer sees his cattle being attacked by a lion, he would not interfere, but if a leopard is involved, they will attack it," said a senior forest officer.