They confessed that they hunted the birds to extract some oil Thoothukudi Forest Department officials on Sunday arrested three poachers on charges of hunting peacocks and recovered eight slain birds at Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi district. Acting on a tip-off that peacocks were hunted in areas of Inasurai, Koothalurai, Kammapatti, Chennamarettypatti and Pillaiyarnatham, the District Forest Officer, Nathan, constituted a patrolling team. The team raided places in Koothalurai, Kammapatti, Chennamarettypatti and Pillaiyarnatham on Saturday night.

B Ravichandran | Udhagamandalam MUDIMUND forest area near here appears to be the hotspot of timber mafia as the environmentalists allegeillegal felling of rare shola trees. Notwithstanding the protection measures taken up by the government, the forests in and around Nilgiris are more susceptible to the activities of timber-mafias, who are said to be very active in certain remote forest areas. In line with this, reports are now coming about the illegal felling of shola trees, a rare variety of indigenous tree, around Mudimund area.

Nalini Ravichandran | Chennai NEEL Metal Fanalca Environment Management Pvt. Ltd( NMF), the private contractor engaged for clearing garbage in Chennai Corporation, conducted an awareness programme for around 21 NGOs and self help groups (SHGs) on source segregation of waste under the 'Operation Clean Chennai' venture, here on Saturday. On completing the training the NGOs and SHGs will function as nodal points and impart training at household levels on the need of segregating organic and inorganic waste.

A.V.Ragunathan 1,000 cusecs of water to be released through four canals, says Minister irrigation-friendly: Health Minister M.R.K.Panneerselvam opening the sluices of the Keelanai on Sunday. CUDDALORE: Health Minister M.R.K. Pannerselvam opened the sluices of the Kollidam-Keelanai, about 95 km from here, releasing water for irrigation on Sunday. He said that owing to the timely release of water from the Mettur dam on June 12, the level in the Keelani now stood at 8 feet (full level 9 ft). The water initially reached the Kallanai on June 16 and the Keelanai on June 18.

C. Jaishankar Work under way off Nagapattinam coast extremely satisfactory No dredging work in the north of Adam's Bridge Port in Rameswaram to come up at a cost of Rs.95 crore RAMANATHAPURAM: Dredging work of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP), except in the north of Adam's Bridge area, will be completed well before April 2009, said K. Suresh, Chairman and Managing Director, Sethusamudram Corporation Limited.

S. Sundar It will help to halve quantum of waste coming from houses Average quantum of waste generated from each household is around 2.5 kg Each district will have at least one plastic recycle unit MADURAI: A comprehensive solid waste management policy is on the anvil to halve the waste generated by houses in town panchayats by 2015, K. Gopal, Commissioner, Town Pachayats, has said.

Government urged to implement the Tamil Nadu Tank Protection and Encroachment Removal Act 2007 CUDDALORE: Environmentalists, social service activists and farmers, who met here on Saturday, urged the government to create a separate Ministry for the protection of water sources. The Ministry, in coordination with the people, should formulate measures that would safeguard the water sources.