An initiative taken up by the district administration along with other departments aims to discourage farmers from cultivating eucalyptus, a water-intensive species, which has adversely affected groundwater level in the region.

Deputy Commissioner D.S. Vishwanath has formulated a plan to encourage farmers to cultivate sandalwood instead of eucalyptus, which would fetch a fair amount of money for the growers. The move would also conserve groundwater in the perennial drought-hit region.

The State Forest Department, in a bid to create assets and popularise the concept of sandalwood estates, will take up the exercise of planting around 10 lakh sandalwood saplings in around 10,000 acres of forest land across the State.

Addressing mediapersons here on Friday, Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara said that 10 places - Kolar, Ramanagara, Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Belgaum, Dharwad, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Tumkur and Bidar - had been identified for planting sandalwood saplings.

The State Forest Minister, Mr K.B.

Protection of five river valley basins tops its agenda

The Western Ghats Task Force has submitted a proposal to recruit 1,000 forest personnel required to protect the natural forests of the Western Ghats. This was announced by Ananth Hegde Ashisara, chairperson of the Task Force, at a meeting on the protection of environment, forests and bio-diversity and pollution control at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the city on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has directed closure of all unauthorised sandalwood oil factories in the country and asked the Centre to formulate a suitable policy for conservation of sandalwood, particularly r

Kannada movie on brigand’s life being shot inside elephant habitat

violation: Crew members of ‘Attahaasa’ shooting in a forest in Chamarajanagar district. ‘Attahaasa’, a Kannada film based on slain forest brigand Veerappan, is again in the news for the wrong reasons. The movie by A M R Ramesh of ‘Cyanide’ fame is being shot in the forest area in violation of the Forest Act.

The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday chided the Forest department for attempting to award ''huge'' punishment for a ''trivial'' offence.

The Division Bench consisting Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna did not agree with the government advocate’s claim that Fayaz Khan, a resident of Channapatna, was guilty of illegally stocking sandalwood nine years ago.

Area selected for project is near tank that quenches animals’ thirst

The State government’s initiative to restore the glory of ‘Gandhadagudi’ (abode of sandalwood) in the State through its ‘Siri Chandanavana’ project does not seem to be in order.

The 134.88 sq km area of Chincholi forest in Karnataka has now been declared South India’s first dryland wildlife sanctuary to protect the prime wolf and hyena habitat.

The State Forest department has decided to grow over 20 lakh sandalwood trees on 2,000 acres of land at a cost of Rs 50 crore in nine districts of the State.

Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara told mediapersons on Monday that the project, implemented in Mysore on a pilot basis, would be extended to other parts of the State.