ITANAGAR, Oct 9 – Arunachal Pradesh, which follows the Assam Forest Regulation Act, 1891, will enact its own Forest Act to protect virgin forests and flora and fauna in the State, Principal Chief C

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forests B S Sajwan today said the State government would soon enact its own Forest Act to protect the virgin forests, besides various flora and fauna in the State.

“We are serious about framing our own forest laws to protect the State’s biodiversity,” he said while responding to queries during a Press conference here this morning. He, however, declined to divulge the time frame by which the Act would be ready and said that the process would start soon.

Bhubaneswar: The successful implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) by the Odisha government has earned appreciation from the Union secretary of the tribal affairs ministry Vibha Puri Das.

PANJIM: In yet another major blow to mining firms hoping to start the mining season by November end, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has decided not to renew Air and Water consent of 107 mining leases, at least temporarily.

GSPCB at its 104th meeting, held on Tuesday, has made permissions under Forest Conservation Act (FCA) and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) mandatory for those mines, operational in the forest areas, including wildlife sanctuaries. Hence, it is now amply clear that mining operations would be delayed further, though industry was expecting to start it by November, after State government suspended mining operations.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said solution to internal security threat does not lie merely in weeding out Naxals in security operations.

New Delhi: Another panel has been set up by the ministry of environment and forests to decide eco-tourism guidelines in core areas and peripheral buffer zones of tiger reserves, and submit a report

Forest Department Set To Lose Monopoly Over 10k Cr Annual Business

It also objects to the classification of mines under Category A

Questions are being raised over the recommendation of the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) allowing mining by 16 companies among which are those embroiled in alleged irregularities. The Samaj Parivartan Samudaya (SPS), petitioners in the illegal mining case in the Supreme Court, has taken exception to the CEC recommendations and to the classification of the mines under Category A (consisting of mines not linked to any irregularity).

The Forest department, which has prepared draft charge sheets against nine of its officials for allowing alleged illegal quarrying in Kanakapura taluk as pointed out in the U V Singh report, has forwarded them to the State government to take suitable action.

Six years ago senior forest officer U V Singh submitted his report citing gross violations of the Forest Conservation Act and the Karnataka Forest Act in Kanakapura. But the government, for reasons best known to it, did not act against these officials, many of whom have occupied plum posts, while one of them has retired.