Western Ghat Task Force President Ananth Hegde Asisara has said that government has accepted the recommendation of the Task Force to stop mining of iron ore and Manganese in Western Ghats, which is an ecological hotspot.

A new species of frog has been discovered in the Western Ghats and Mangalore, by a team of researchers from St Aloysius College.

The Centre will soon release Rs 700 crore for the conservation of forests in the State, besides extending a special grant for the development and conservation of ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats, Union Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday.

Western Ghats Task Force Chairman Ananth Hegde Ashisara said a proposal has been sent to the Union government with an appeal to utilise the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to protect medicinal herbs in collaboration with the Forest and Horticulture departments.

There would be landslide in Neriya at any time, says Ashisara

Western Ghats Task Force Chairman Anantha Hegade Ashisara has urged the district administration to take immediate precautionary measures to prevent any possible landslide in Neriya of Belthangady taluk.

BHARAT DOGRA

Pune Tata Power's three hydroelectric power stations at Khopoli, Bhira and Bhivpuri supply India's financial capital with 450 MW of life-giving electricity. So much so that the company's methodology of large-scale plantations in the catchments of the Western Ghats - the global hotspot that is host to at least 4,000 species of flowering plants - has now been lauded by Romania.

Subhash Chandra N S, Bangalore, DH News Service:

A group of wildlife researchers and the State Forest department have recently discovered the largest population of the critically endangered Lion tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), numbering over 600, in the forests of Sirsi-Honnavar in the Western Ghats.

The Lion tailed macaque nestles in a forest canopy, its natural habitat.