BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh is fast losing its dense forest and the loss has been alarming in the last two years.

Amid protest by villagers, Mandla district administration held a public hearing for proposed nuclear plant at Chutka area on Monday.

According to district administration about 500 people mostly tribals and residents from the region participated at the public hearing and expressed their views freely.

Ahead of district administration's third attempt to convene a public hearing for acquisition of land for proposed Chukta atomic power plant in Mandla, fresh protests have erupted on Saturday.

Fifty-three cases of tiger poaching and 160 cases of killing of leopard are being tried in various courts in Madhya Pradesh, some for over four decades.

A case of tiger death registered on May 17, 1975 in Kanha National Park in Mandla district is still pending decision in the court. Another case of tiger death registered on September 25, 1979 in Balaghat district is also under the legal process.

The apex green panel has ordered Madhya Pradesh government to flag locations of 43 mines in Mandla on a map and state if they come on trek used by tigers and other wild animals as a passage.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked Ministry of Environment and Forest (Moef) to file an affidavit to this effect. It asked whether any such proposal to declare the area in dispute as a 'Tiger Corridor' is under consideration with the ministry.

Dengue outbreak has reportedly claimed two lives and so far infected 18 patients, while test reports of several patients are still awaited for confirmation, in Bakori village of tribal Mandla distr

Upcoming project in MP to displace local tribal population; proposed site in highly seismic zone near Kanha National Park

Locals of Mandla district will once again raise their voices against 1400 MW NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation India Limited) Chutka project which is coming up in highly seismic zone, near Kanha national park and adjacent to one of the least polluted river Narmada. State government officials have already issued land acquisition notices to local people, almost all of them are tribal, and have slapped a NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) report which is Greek to them.