Some 100 hectares of forest area in the district have already been damaged in the forest fire that continues to spread across since the past week.

Number of patients suffering from viral diarrhea has been on the rise here of late.

A solar energy -based drinking water project has been brought into operation at Khumkhani of Halwar, the remotest village in Dang district.

The construction work of Khangrana Drinking Water Project at Rajpur VDC-7 near Nepal- India border in Dang district has been completed recently, state-owned news agency RSS reports.

Ahmedabad: Tribal districts, which were the torch-bearers for the girl child in Gujarat, boasting of a far healthier number of girls in 0-6 age group, too have shown a decline in the past decade. Sociologists see this trend as alarming as almost all non-tribal districts in Gujarat are already reeling under a skewed sex ratio.
All the tribal districts including Dang, Dahod, Panchmahals, Tapi, Valsad, Narmada and Bharuch, have posted a decline in the child sex ratio in 0-6 age group as per figures of Census 2011.

Surat: Thousands of tribals from Dang district participated in a massive rally organised by Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Ekta Ane Vikas Parishad (ABAEVP) at Ahwa on Monday to protest against long pending issues pertaining to rights of tribal people and proposed construction of dams on Purna, Khapri and Ambika rivers under the river linking project of Gujarat and Maharashtra governments.

In a small, hilly district of south Gujarat lies the story of a people moving out of the shadow of war and death, guns and bullets to embrace peace and prosperity. It is the story of bravery in the face of death, of battling armed Maoists who are slicing through India's tribal heartland, challenging the writ of the state.

Himanshu Kaushik | TNN

Ahmedabad: Gandhinagar has the maximum concentration of Totally Dissolved Solids in its water, shows a state-wide survey. The state capital showed a TDS level of 3,800 parts per million against the permissible limit of 2,000ppm, followed by Mehsana (3,700ppm).

Anger seems to be boiling among Dangs villagers as the number of people being killed by leopards is rising by the day. However, senior forest department officials are paying no heed to the issue, although they were camping in the affected villages on Monday. The villagers allegedly torched a portion of forest on Sunday to hackle the man-eater leopard. Forest officials admitted that the fire was not natural and it was put by the villagers. In last two months, leopards have killed at least eight persons, including three children and have injured about three in villages in Dangs (south) range. The last incident had taken place on Saturday when Kakduben Gawit, 56, living in Waghmal village in Waghai, was dragged by the leopard. The lady eventually died due to excessive blood loss. Before that leopards have already targeted Sanjanaben Nimbare, 4, Thaguben Pawar, 60, Ajay Pawar, 5, Sunandaben Gamit, 16 and Bharjuben Pawar, 55. These villagers were from Amsarvalan, Lavaria, Vangan, Borpada and Waghmal which are situated in close vicinity. "The teams from Geer Foundation and Geer forest have already joined hands with us and are working on the issue. We are adopting all possible plans to put an end to the rising number of attacks on humans. We are not sure if it is only one leopard which is responsible for all the deaths because the pug marks are not corroborating with the statements given by the villagers,' Bharatsinh Waghela, deputy conservator of forests, Dangs (south), said. The villagers, on the other hand, alleged that despite incidents have been occurring since the last three months, forest officials have ignored the issue. "They place the cage and leave the place, which is not the solution. With no other option left, we have now formed teams comprising of men from villages. We patrol the village during nights. Forest officials have failed to help us, forcing us to adopt our own methods to get a solution,' Prakash Birari, deputy sarpanch of Waghmal village, said. hitarth.pandya@timesgroup.com Villagers torched jungle: Officials Forest officials admitted that villagers on Sunday had torched a small part of the forest to tackle the leopard. "Villagers apparently saw a leopard sneaking into the village boundary and put a small part of the forest on fire. When the animal went towards the jungle, the villagers gathered some dry leaves and burnt them. no damage was caused in the jungle or to the wildlife due to the fire,' DCF Bharatsinh Waghela said.