MUMBAI: Fed up of waiting endlessly for a final resolution, residents on private forest land have decided to pay the differential amount that has been demanded of them by the state government.

The Marwahi forest of Chhattisgarh is known for human-sloth bear conflict, as habitats shrink and human disturbance increases.

The green cover in Gurgaon, Mahendergarh, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Palwal would be increased with funds from the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

Presiding over CAMPA’s Steering Committee meeting, Haryana Chief Secretary P.K. Chaudhery said that plantation in these cities would be in addition to the ongoing urban forestry schemes.

Greenpeace India's `Save Junglistan' online campaign to save the forests and stop coal mining has received over 50,000 signatures on the petition.

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.

New Delhi The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has defended its position on the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) report citing delayed green nods that has hindered coal production. The ministry said it gave clearances in excess of what was required and projects are pending as these clearances are still unultilised.

The ministry claims to have given clearances worth 2.71 lakh MW of power capacity of which only 55,000 MW have been used till now. Further, it claims to have cleared 800 mt of coal against current demand of 436 mt. The ministry also said that most of the projects didn't furnish information related to coal linkages, acreage and sulphur content which delayed the green nods.

Norway's environment minister on Friday urged Brazil and Indonesia to avoid backtracking on policies to protect tropical forests, saying up to $2 billion in aid promised by Oslo hinged on proof of

The Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan on Sunday called for stringent punishment to those who violate environmental laws. No serious imprisonment is currently provided for violators of environmental laws. This needs to be changed, she said.

Inaugurating the VIT-The Hindu Education Plus Club on the VIT University campus here, Ms. Natarajan said that there should be utter transparency in matters concerning environment. Everything connected with environment should be monitored so that the violators of rules do not go scot-free, she said.