Counting the cost of decades of breakneck development, Chinese scientists and policy-makers outlined the daunting challenges they face in trying to halt the country's environmental degradation.

Human-wildlife conflict is widespread in today’s South Asia and the wider world. Forty-seven elephants, seven leopards and two tigers have been killed in the last twenty months in the forests of northern Bengal. The deaths of elephants were caused in most cases by speeding trains. The problem of
human-animal conflict is increasingly featuring in the media and in discussions. Interestingly, human-animal conflict has a rich history and dates back to the pre-historic times.

In foothills of Shiwaliks due to presence of torrents, soil erosion is very serious problem. The flow acquires accelerated velocity at it travels down the slope and consequently becomes highly erosive in nature. Study aea of Baroi Khad (rainy season torrents) lies at Akhnoor Tehsil of Jammu district in Jammu and Kashmir state.

Out of the total geographical area of India about 53% suffers from different kinds of land degradation, and Uttar Pradesh accounts for 9.06%. About 4.0 m ha (11.03%) area of the country is suffering from ravine problem. U.P. shares 1.230 m ha (31%) ravine land of the country spread over in 25 districts of the state.

The air-breathing freshwater fish Clarias is represented by three species in the aquatic ecosystems of Kerala: Clarias batrachus Hamilton (the walking catfish), Clarias dayi Hora (Malabar catfish) and Clarias dussumieri Valenciennes (Valenciennes clariid). However, the populations of these species are declining sharply in Kerala and Clarias has became rare now. (Correspondence)

Land degradation is a serious menace to food security. Salinity-related land degradation is becoming a serious challenge to food and nutritional security in developing countries. Order vertisols has problem of salinity throughout the country. The vertisols and their associates cover nearly 257 m ha of the earth