At least six persons were killed and eight injured when a huge rock rolled down from the Nehru Kund hill on the Manali-Rohtang highway, about 5 km from here, this evening.

The Himalayan Policy Campaign Committee, an umbrella organisation of various environmental groups, voluntary organisations and NGOs based in the Himalayan region has requested the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Rural development to defer the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007. The committee while giving certain suggestions to be incorporated in the Bills has demanded that specialist NGOs and peoples groups on environmental issues should also be consulted. The governing body of the HPCC in a representation to the Chairman of Standing Committee Mr. Kalyan Singh has demanded that the Land Acquisition Act should be repealed since it leads to a disruption in the eco-systems. And when the ecosystems are damaged, destroyed or altered, it affects not only the communities and their livelihoods in the immediate vicinity but also downstream communities. Corporate rights The HPCC while raising the issue of corporate rights versus community rights said the later should be given preference since it is the community which was dependent on the natural resources and has natural rights on them from the time immemorial. Increasingly governments around the world are treating the notion of objectives of corporations as equal to national interest. This is grossly incorrect, says the HPCC. Any project that is decided on the merit of profit cannot be in national interest but in the interest of shareholders of a corporation. Therefore, national interest should be restricted to only security concerns, demanded the NGO. The HPCC is objecting to rampant construction of hydro electric projects in Himachal Pradesh and other hill States from a long time now.

In an effort to preserve the productive area for, the state government has decided not to allow setting up of any special economic zone (SEZ) on agricultural land, however, the entrepreneurs willing to invest on the barren land are most welcome. Rather, the government will facilitate investors, who are willing to invest in barren areas, claimed Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Dhumal was interacting with mediapersons after inaugurating a new OPD complex, at Nurpur Civil Hospital, here today. It has been made at a cost of Rs 119 crore.

The National Wildlife Action Plan was adopted in 2004. It entailed identifying ecologically fragile areas and wildlife corridors within 10 km of protected areas, and getting states to notify them as eco-fragile zones under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. But there was no progress in some states.

goa town planning minister resigns: Embroiled in a controversy over the Goa State Regional Plan 2011, the state's town and country planning minister, Atanasio Monserrate, resigned from the cabinet on January 3, 2006. In less than a week, the Goa chief minister, Pratapsinh Rane, sworn in BJP legisator Manohar Azgaokar in his place. Rane described the resignation as a decision "taken in haste'. But Monserrate blamed his party colleagues for his resignation, as they did not back him in the controversy surrounding the regional plan.

ON December 23, 2006, more than 200 people gathered in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, to protest the government's inaction regarding crop depredation by wildlife, especially monkeys, in the state.

the wildlife department of Himachal Pradesh is now in a muddle. Its pheasant-breeding programme lacks experts. The Rs 5-crore Sarahan pheasantry, which saw the world's first-ever successful captive

THE Himachal Pradesh government's attitude towards implementing the Catchment Area Treatment (cat) plan has been described as sluggish by environmentalists. The state government has also been accused

Everyone in Himachal Pradesh has an opinion on one issue

in march 2006, Himachal Pradesh gave the go-ahead to proposals denotifying four sanctuaries and redrawing boundaries of 15 areas, including protected areas. Not surprisingly, the areas are required