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Bhutan State of the Environment Report : The Monthly Overview, September 2013

 
LAND, AGRICULTURE, GRAZING LANDS AND ANIMAL CARE
 
Food Corporation Bhutan officials said they recorded increase in vegetable yield this year. Corporation officials said this was their first such experience so far, where vegetable productions almost doubled. Farmers in the western part of Saptari district in Nepal are concerned after the paddy fields have started going dry due to the prevailing dry spell. Nepal’s rice import bill jumped to an alarming Rs 13.67 billion in the 2012-13 fiscal year, as the country’s output failed to meet the growing rice demand.
 
MINING
 
During deliberations on the country’s mining activity, National Council members expressed dissatisfaction over geology and mines officials’ reluctance to share
information on Bhutan’s geological mapping of minerals. The National Council in Bhutan made three recommendations with regards to mining activities in the country and the sector’s future direction.
 
FORESTS
 
Forestry officials in the western district of Haa in Bhutan, have seized 865 kgs of sandalwood smuggled in from India and headed for markets across the northern border. A total of 119 hectares of forestland belonging to the Krishnasar Conservation Area (KCA) in Bardiya district of Nepal has been encroached.
 
ENERGY
 
By June 2015, two wind turbines should be up and spinning in Rubesa, Wangdue and generating up to 250 kilowatts (KW) of energy each, enough to light up at least 100 village homes in Bhutan. Officials of the department of renewable energy (DRE) in Bhutan held a pre-bid meeting with contractors interested in supplying and installing the wind turbines for the wind power pilot project.
 
LIVING RESOURCES
 
Villagers under three gewogs of Drakteng, Nubi and Tangsibji in Trongsa of Bhutan, dread their job of guarding the fields from wild boars that has grown increasingly onerous this year. They said the number of wild boars attacking their crops increased three times this year.