The Cabinet meeting presided over by CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan 15th Nov 2007, for approval amendments to Industry Augmentation Policy-2004 and some of the provisions of its action plan and related policies of other departments discussed. Approval of the amendments aims at making the policy more effective, but neither the departmental structure decentralized nor Circle Industry Offices constituted at divisional level.

North Khayerbari (Alipurduar): A group of farmers from a fringe village here has been patrolling the forests for free in their spare time to keep away timber smugglers. To protect the group from confrontation with the smugglers, the forest department today provided the 24 men with uniforms complete with a T-shirt, cap, name plate, baton, torch and bicycle. "The group will get Rs 2,000 per month for tiffin,' said Ashim Chaki, the range officer of Madarihat, which comes under Cooch Behar forest division.

Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that the trade in minor forest produced should be promoted and its profits must reach the villagers directly. Kunwar Vijay Shah reviewed the activities of Rajya Laghu Vanopaj Sangh after assuming the charge of its chairman today. He also underlined the need of increasing Tendu Patta collection and early payment of incentive money to Tendu Patta collectors. Those present on the occasion included Principal Secretary Forest Shri Prashant Mehta, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Shri V.R. Khare, managing director Shri Ramesh K.

The Forest department of the State has undertaken an ambitious project of bamboo plantation to strengthen the economic foundation of the State. Talking to mediapersons recently at Nagaon, Rockybul Hussain, Forest Minister told that his department would plant bamboo on 2000 hectares of land around Guwahati through the Bamboo Mission. He also disclosed that to make bamboo-based industry popular, two bamboo museums would be opened, one each at Nagaon and Guwahati.

Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited, the third largest entity in the Indian Paper Industry operating with three large integrated paper mills each with installed capacity of 1,00,000 ton paper per annum. Two are directly managed Units in Asom

The poor man's timber, bamboo, is no longer the orphan crop. It is gradually engaging the attention of the government, which has planned to diversify its uses to reap the benefits in the $7.5 billion global bamboo product market. India is the second richest bamboo resource country in the world, next only to China. In terms of genetic diversity, India has 136 bamboo species under 75 genera. About 89 bamboo species out of 126 recorded in India under 16 genera grow naturally in different forest areas or are cultivated.

Commercial cultivation of the "green gold'

POLICE in the city are in an unenviable position as sandalwood trees continue to be the target of thieves who smuggle them to Kerala, from where they are taken to other states. This despite various measures taken by them to bust the smuggler gangs. Police sources said some time back there were factories in Kerala making oil from sandalwood smuggled from Tamil Nadu, but as the Kerala Government has banned production of sandalwood oil, the smugglers clandestinely transport the logs to other states through Kerala.

Brazil Making Condoms To Stem Amazon Losses, AIDS BRAZIL: April 8, 2008 BRASILIA - The Brazilian government began producing condoms on Monday using rubber from trees in the Amazon, a move it said would help preserve the world's largest rainforest and cut dependence on imported contraceptives given away to fight AIDS. Brazil's first government-run condom factory, located in northwestern Acre state, will produce 100 million condoms a year, the health ministry said in a statement.