Year 2010 will be celebrated as Bamboo Year by the Forest Department. The primary target has been set to plant about 3-crore bamboo plants in forest and other areas. Bamboo plantation will also be included in schemes as forestation and gardening, said Forest Minister Sartaj Singh.

Malana (Kullu): The role of forest department has come under scanner as it has not lodged an FIR against Everest Power Private Limited (EPPL) that axed 364 trees and destroyed 115 bighas of forest area in the lush green Malana valley.

Tirupur: Minister for Forests N. Selvaraj on Tuesday inspected Kulipatti in the district from where huge quantities of sandalwood were seized by the forest officials during the last fortnight in phases. He along with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, A. S. Balanathan, examined how smugglers were able to cut down large number of trees in a short span of time.

Participating in the Forest Martyr

The Centre has asked the state to speed up the implementation of Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, meant to provide ownership rights to those who have been farming on forestland.

The woes of residents in buildings on private forest lands in and around the city just do not seem to end. The state forest department has failed to keep its promise to submit a full list of such buildings to the Supreme Court by November 1.

On the allegation of misappropriation of 167.980 tonnes of Sal seeds worth about Rs 2.94 lakh by falsifying the accounts and official records, a Vigilance case was registered against Ratnakar Das, a former Sectional Supervisor in charge of Nabarangpur Sal Seeds Central Godown, Golak Behari Barik, former Sectional Supervisor in charge of Papadahandi Sal Seeds Central Godown and Trinath Prasad Sahu,