KOCHI: The Central team, which was on a three-day visit to Munnar to check whether there were violations of the forests protection laws, was not able to locate over 1,000 acres of forest land in the KDH village in Mankulam which existed in the sketch and documents.

Pisi Zauing

JORHAT, April 5: Even as the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has decided to take up some protection projects along the border areas of the State, observers are of the view that the projects will not be effective due to lack of proper demarcation of the State boundary.

Approaching the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, where most of the world's approximately 3000 surviving one-horned rhinos are found, one can see ramshackle structures on both sides of the road presenting an ugly sight in a verdant green canvas.

Tirupati, March 22: Tension prevailed at B.V. Puram Gollapalle, a forest fringe hamlet near Srikalahasti, about 60 km from here, on Monday when forest department personnel tried to stop about 500 tribals led by the Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary, Mr K. Narayana, from encroaching on forest land.

Implementation of the Forest Act may have been dismal in Jharkhand so far, but Operation Greenhunt has made the district administrations realise that speeding up the task of distributing pattas or land documents to tribal villagers would only add teeth to the ongoing fight against Maoist rebels.

More than 4,85,674 hectares of forest land of Assam are under encroachment by its neghbouring states and other authorities on date, this has been published in a report of the Central Government. According to the report, Assam is on the top of the list among other states of the country in terms of encroachment in forest land.

Assam has topped the list of States in terms of encroachment in forest land, with about 4,85,674 hectares of area being occupied, the Government told the Lok Sabha today, reports PTI.

Replying to a query, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said that Andhra Pradesh is in the second place with 2,68,853 hectares of forest land under encroachment.

Union minister of environment Jairam Ramesh had a lengthy inter- action with 43 MPs from 51 districts that fall under the Western Ghats region.

A court order finally frees housing projects in Mumbai

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