The State Forest department has started annual wildlife census from May 14 to 20. Forest department officials said that while they would conduct pugmark count till Sunday, there would be a night watch on May 19 -20, which are the full moon nights. The census is on in the entire limits of the national park, including the Yeoor hill regions, Tungareshwar, Phansad and Karnal.

Even as the Narmada Control Authority is looking at rehabilitation claims of States affected by the Narmada dam in Gujarat, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People has said that there was no case for raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar Project and that it should be frozen at the current height of 121.92 metres. Several thousand people being displaced by the dam in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are seeking proper rehabilitation and resettlement.

The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) has come out with guidelines on environmentally sound management of e-waste. The guiding principles come at a time when there is a pressing need for intervention as the e-waste inventory in India is expected to shoot up in the coming years.

All schools across the country will have toilet facilities by the year end, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said on Thursday. While Sikkim, Puducherry, Mizoram and Haryana have already achieved this target, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan will do so by July. The remaining States that include Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Punjab, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be able to cover all schools by November.

The Prayavaran Mitra Program by CYG Pune, 2008 in association with United Nations Environment Program ( UNEP ) and Indian Medical Association (IMA) had on Thursday organised the "Paryavaran Mitra Din " at Bhairavnath Mandir-Baner especially to educate the residents of the fringe villages. The programme has support from University of Pune, Sarathi, Dada Kondke Foundation, Vasundhara Swatchta Abhiyan and Jetking Info, stated a press release.

Defence Ministry denies permission for low-flying photos, necessary for contour mapping of city The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's grand plans to arm itself with a mathematical model that will help predict a deluge like the 944-mm deluge of July 26, 2005, just received a huge setback. Looking to prepare a flood modelling system, the BMC had sought permissions to shoot a series of low-flying photographs of the city's surfaces for a contour mapping exercise, but were rebuffed. Last week, the Ministry of Defence rejected the plans for

Nearly thirty years after Goa made the first payment towards Tillari project, engineers in Maharashtra say that it is little more than a year away from completion even as the cost has jumped to Rs 1390 crore from the first estimate of Rs 45 crore in 1978-79. The joint venture of Maharashtra and Goa is scheduled to cater to the needs of irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply and power generation, officials told media persons who were on a tour to Konalkatta on Friday.

Maharashtra Finance Minister Jayant Patil has floated a consultation paper on the concept of creating an exclusive club of progressive states to act as a pressure group for their developmental needs. A meeting of the potential members could take place in the next four months. Patil said he had received "overwhelming response" from progressive states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

If everything goes well, the Model Colony ward of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) could become a 'model' before the other municipal wards for making use of the discarded garbage for a 'powerful' cause. The municipal body is planning to generate electricity by setting up a biogas plant that will use the garbage within the Model Colony ward as its fuel input and run the streetlights in the ward with the electricity generated.

Just north of Mumbai, along the creek at Kopar Khairne in Navi Mumbai is the story of how a fragile ecosystem is being systematically destroyed. Despite a High Court ruling against cutting of mangroves, amid a continuing real estate boom in Navi Mumbai, there is clear evidence of debris being dumped on what was once a lush mangrove forest here.