Huge fire erupted on Tuesday on Margalla Hills near sector F-5, encompassing large chunk of forest area, besides affecting flora and fauna.

The growing of tea invariably replaces biodiversity-rich tropical forests with a beautiful, but single species (monoculture).

In the absence of any viable regulatory mechanism for gene technology, the Supr-eme Court has set up a six-member expert committee to monitor field trials on certain crops using genetically-modifie

Fire erupted on Margalla Hills at two points on Wednesday, gutting a huge stretch of forest area, besides affecting flora and fauna.

Kerala will soon revamp its environment policy, three years after formulating it, to include climate change aspects in the document.

The Department of Environment has initiated a consultation process with various stakeholder agencies in this regard. The views of around 20 departments and research organisations have been sought to enrich the policy document that was published in 2009. The policy of the State was framed before the formation of the Department of Environment and Climate Change. The document had not covered climate change aspects.

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.”

Plants are flowering faster than scientists predicted in response to climate change, research in the United States showed on Wednesday, which could have devastating knock-on effects for food chains

The fire which ravaged several forests of the State this February was not an accident but a man-made act, according to the report of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife).

B K Singh, PCCF, in his report to the State government, has stated that a total of 3,624 hectares of forest land were affected by the fire. However, there has been no damage to the flora and fauna or the wildlife in the forests, except 460 hectares in Nagarahole National Park.