DIGBOI, July 26

Nearly 30 acres of land in Knuckles Range, one of Sri Lanka's forest reserves in the central hill country has been destroyed by still raging bush fires.

Department of Forest Conservation said thes fire has broken out in Kalugala, Ududumbara in the Knuckles Range.

With the Supreme Court clearing the decks for the release of the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds, the Environment Ministry has now set a target of bringing six million hectares of degraded forests under regenerated forest cover through afforestation across the country in the next few years.

LUCKNOW: The advent of monsoon will witness another green bonanza in the state with forest department and several government agencies announcing bloated plantation targets. But it is early to believe that the new saplings planted will increase the green cover of the state. More so because plantation efforts so far have not changed it.

FOREST conservation in the central Western Ghats of south India was shaped by colonial and post-colonial desires to create a modern, improved and ordered landscape primarily through promoting a plantationbased economy. In the process, forest dependent com- munities were marginalised

BHUBANESWAR: A whopping 25 lakh saplings were planted across Orissa on Tuesday as part of the afforestation drive by the Forest Department.

The plantation activities were held across 205 forest locations in the State.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced it at a Vanomahotsav function yesterday. Public, school and college students would be involved in this endeavour, he said.

LUCKNOW: The week-long Van Mahotsav would come to a close on July 7. The Green Run-2009 will mark its formal conclusion on Tuesday. The run will start from KD Singh Babu stadium at 7.00am on the day and end at GPO Crossing.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today underlined the need for concerted effort to conserve green cover, and to take measures to combat climate change.

Speaking at a function to observe the 60th Vana Mahotsav, he announced that a new coordinated body involving forest, tourism and industry would be formed to utilize natural resources of the State in a sustainable way.