In an effort to wean away tribals from the Maoists, the Environment Ministry is pushing for a minimum support price for minor forest produce like bamboo and tendu patta.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is taking up the matter with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

A minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce (MFP) would help increase the earnings of the tribal population.

The State forest department and 12,000 van panchyats comprising over one lakh manpower will jointly control the wild fires in this season.

Though the forest department has already been using high-tech satellite services and state -of-the-art risk assessment danger rating system to contain the forest fires and van panchayat employees will also help to protect the forests from wild fires.

New Delhi: The environment and forests ministry took half a step towards ending the monopoly of the forest department over the Rs 10,000 crore annual bamboo trade in the country. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to chief ministers of all states to alter their rules and instruct the state forest officers to treat bamboo as a minor forest produce.

The department of Forest, Environment and Ecology has passed an order to hand over 6,300 tonne bamboo which have flowered and dried in the Kodagu forest to the Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation Limited as a precautionary measure to avoid forest fire and also to increase the income of the Corporation.

pride of kodagu: A view of bamboo flowering across Kodagu.

GANGTOK, Feb 27

The State Department of Forests is planning to permit private companies to grow forest produce such as rubber, eucalyptus, bamboo, reed, cane and tamarind on its land across the State.

Forest Minister C H Vijayashankar told reporters here on Wednesday that the department will take a major portion of about 1.40 lakh acres of forest land that is in the possession of the Karnataka Forest Developme

Rubber prices are on track for successive record highs as robust Asian economies led by China step up purchases, prompting producing countries to expand plantations to capitalise on the insatiable demand.

Mahesh Kulkarni / Gubbi (tumkur District) February 15, 2011, 0:56 IST
Farmers in Tumkur district convert coconut husk into value-added products

About 15,000 coconut farmers in eastern Karnataka

The Maharashtra coast may lose a critically endangered species of mangrove, Xylocarpus granatum, warned two researchers, who have called for greater awareness of the issue among citizens.

Associate professor at Islampur-based Karmavir Bhaurao Patil College, MV Gokhale, and a research fellow at the botany department of Shivaji University, Sajid Sheikh, found the situation of the mangroves on the

Karnataka has banned cultivation of eucalyptus in malnad (hill area) and semi-malnad areas.