A month after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav himself wrote a letter requesting speedy approval for Mulayam's dream project of setting up a Lion Safari in Fisher Forest at Etawah, the Union Ministry

Jaipur:Around 29,692 hectares of forest land is under encroachment in Rajasthan, according to the latest figures of the ministry of environment and forests. While the country boasts of over 19.57 lakh hectares of encroached forest land as compared to 17,94,879 hectares in 2009.

The data shows that the encroachments on forest land have increased over the past five years in the country. Rajasthan already has very few natural forests. The statistics for the last five years show that Bundi district in the state leads with 8878 hectares of encroached forest land. Followed by Chittorgarh 6354 hectares and Dungarpur 4426 hectares. Alwar had 454 hectares, Dausa 372 hectares, Hanumangarh 113 hectares and Ajmer had 45 hectares of forest land under encroachment.

The forest department is reviewing all pending cases regarding illegal tree felling in Goa in a bid to expedite these and the department is also contemplating action against officers who delay the

New Delhi: Rejection of big-ticket mining proposals such as Vedanta has been a rare exception in the UPA’s nine-year reign. The UPA has given clearance to cut a whopping six lakh hectares of forests — of these more than 2.5 lakh hectares were for mining — since it came to power in mid-2004.

The data, accessed by TOI from the environment ministry, shows that the inprinciple and final clearances add up to the combined area of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, or roughly the equivalent of three large tiger reserves.

SHILLONG, April 18: The Meghalaya Assembly on Thursday rejected the cut motion to discuss the functioning of the Forest department brought by Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) legislator

SHILLONG: The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) will take a call on the quantum of penalty to be imposed on cement plants which have violated the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act,

The contentious issue of notifying buffer areas around tiger reserves came under sharp debate when the Supreme Court issued interim directions to stop tourism in core or Critical Tiger Habitats (CT

’’Instead of taking action against the erring cement companies indicted by the JIT, the State Government came out with an amendment on definition of forest which was nothing but to shield the cement lobbies. If this (act on forest definition) is not stopped, more and more forest cover of the state will be depleted,’’

SHILLONG: The Maitshaphrang Movement (MSM) and the Jaintia Youth Fededration (JYF) has alleged that the Meghalaya Forest Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2012 which was tabled and passed in the Assembly was in favour of the cement companies even as they have decided to file a PIL in the High Court against the State Government.