Activists of Taluk Dalit Sangharsha Samiti unit staged a dharna in front of the taluk office here on Thursday demanding strigent action against officers allegedly in cahoots with the land mafia.

Nearly 50 per cent of the 55,292 acre Government-owned grazing land (Amruth Mahal Kaval) has been encroached upon, in the State.

Disclosing this to reporters on Wednesday, Animal Husbandry Minister Revu Nayak Belamagi said over 21,000 acre of grazing land spread across six districts of Chikmagalur, Chitradurga, Hassan, Tumkur, Mandya and Davanagere are encroached.

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has said that no dumping of garbage on a 67-acre grazing land at Kuthambakkam in Tiruvallur district, about 40 km from here, will be permitted, until further orders.

Authorities in China aim to halt the spread of the desert in Tibet by next year, hoping to stem the effects of years of mining, tree-felling and overgrazing, state media said on Thursday
Desertification is spreading by 98,000 acres annually in Tibet, an official at the regional forestry bureau was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency

MUKESH RANJAN
NEW DELHI

June 5: Claiming that urbanisation and industrialisation, including Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are inevitable to take place in growing India, deputy chairman of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, acquisition of certain portion of irrigated farmland for the purpose could not be avoided.