Bangalore: Forest department officials must step out and visit the wooded areas regularly to prevent illegal activities like growing marijuana, Kaushik Mukherjee, additional chief secretary and dev

Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to oppose declaration of any populated area on the Western Ghats in the State as ecologically sensitive area.

In its response to the report of the High Level Working Group on Western Ghats chaired by K. Kasturirangan, the Cabinet said that Kerala was particular that no settlement area that had been populated for years should be declared as sensitive area on the recommendation of the Group.

PANJIM: The Justice (retd) R M S Khandeparkar committee has decided to examine those mining illegalities, which were not reportedly scrutinized by the Justice M B Shah Commission, rather than just verifying the irregularities and illegalities enlisted by the Shah Commission in its exhaustive report on illegal mining in Goa.

More importantly, the committee plans to prepare a roadmap for future of the mining industry in the state. The committee has also decided to seek inputs from anti and pro-mining public, regarding illegal mining in Goa.

Jaipur:Around 29,692 hectares of forest land is under encroachment in Rajasthan, according to the latest figures of the ministry of environment and forests. While the country boasts of over 19.57 lakh hectares of encroached forest land as compared to 17,94,879 hectares in 2009.

The data shows that the encroachments on forest land have increased over the past five years in the country. Rajasthan already has very few natural forests. The statistics for the last five years show that Bundi district in the state leads with 8878 hectares of encroached forest land. Followed by Chittorgarh 6354 hectares and Dungarpur 4426 hectares. Alwar had 454 hectares, Dausa 372 hectares, Hanumangarh 113 hectares and Ajmer had 45 hectares of forest land under encroachment.

Hyderabad: Green cover is dwindling rapidly in the state, and Hyderabad is the worst hit when compared to other cities, according to data released by the Forest Survey of India and the AP Forest department.

In just one year, the state has lost tree cover of the size of Vijayawada city, or about 45.34 sq km.
According to Forest Survey of India-2011 Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy have only five per cent of forest cover at 391 sq km out of the total area o 7,710 sq km.

GUWAHATI, March 24: According to the State Forest Department sources, about 18 per cent of reserve forest area in Guwahati has been illegally encroached upon.

Lucknow: The government is keen on increasing the green cover in the state.

Sets up a three-member panel to monitor execution of the order

The National Green Tribunal has through a recent order banned construction of roads and cutting of trees in the Aravallis directing the parties concerned to restore the area to its original condition. The Tribunal also set up a three-member committee to monitor the execution of the order. The order came on Badshahpur resident Devendra Kumar’s plea on violation of provisions of the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on May 7, 1992 that prohibited certain activities in the Aravalli Hills in Gurgaon.

Thirteen units were operating illegally and one unit was closed down in Sidhra area while 13 others including five stone crushers, have been granted ‘consent to operate’ by the State Pollution Control Board in the same area.

Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, Mian Altaf while giving reply to the question of PDP member Murtaza Ahmed Khan in the Legislative Council today disclosed that SPCB has granted permission to operate 13 units in Sidhra, Ragoora and Majeen area.

Mumbai: The sudden spurt in leopard attacks and increased instances of leopard spotting around Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) are primarily due to the high density of human population and concentration of small prey on the periphery, a year-long study has revealed.

The study, “Mumbaikars for SGNP”, was conducted by the forest department and the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore and found that there are at least 21 leopards in the national park.