Forest Land

WB govt with Dutch help prepares plan to tackle floods in Sunderbans

The West Bengal government has drafted an action plan with the help of Dutch experts to tackle floods, prevent embankment damage and decrease salinity level in Sunderbans and in the coastal areas. Principal Secretary of Irrigation and Waterways department Prabhat Kumar Mishra told PTI that the department had signed the letter of intent (LoI) with the Netherlands government in the sixth edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit in April last year for technical assistance in delta management and development of the Sunderbans and coastal areas of Digha. "An action plan has been formulated and pilot project already taken off near Mousumi islands in South 24 Parganas district to strengthen embankments and the Dutch team - consisting of experts - has made three-four visits to the delta areas of south Bengal to take forward the work," he said. Mishra said various waterways, including blocked water canals and river channels, crisscrossing parts of south Bengal, had been connected with .

Eviction drive to clear forest land underway in Assam's Lakhimpur

An eviction drive to clear 450 hectares of forest land from "illegal settlers" is underway in Assam's Lakhimpur district on Tuesday, officials said. Out of 2,560.25 hectares of the reserved forest, only 29 hectares are currently free of any encroachment, they said. More than 500 families have been affected in the drive to clear 450 hectares of land under Pavo reserved forest, with 200 hectares being targeted in the first phase on Tuesday, a senior police officer said. Lakhimpur Additional Superintendent of Police Runa Neog said over 60 excavators and tractors and 600 security personnel have been pressed into action since morning. "The drive is underway peacefully since 7.30 am and we have not faced any resistance so far. We are expecting a smooth exercise," Neog told PTI. She said security forces had been conducting area domination for the last few days and the "illegal settlers" were asked to vacate their houses. Official sources said that 200 hectares of land in Moghuli village

Area under moderately dense mangroves fell in 10 years, shows data

Overall mangrove cover increased between 2011 and 2021

Uttarakhand: Former DGP, 7 others accused of illegal forest land possession

Former Uttarakhand DGP B S Sidhu and seven others have been booked for an illegal possession of forest land and subsequently cutting 25 "sal" trees. The case has been registered at the Rajpur police station by Mussoorie Divisional Forest Officer Ashutosh Singh after getting permission from the Uttarakhand government, police said here. A police officer said it was alleged in the complaint that Sidhu in 2012 bought one-and-a-half hectares of land in Virgirwali village of the Mussoorie forest division and cut 25 "sal" trees. On receiving information, the state Forest Department conducted an inquiry, in which it came to light that the trees were planted on reserve forest land. The Forest Department had also challaned Sidhu. Later, the registry of the land in Sidhu's name was also cancelled and permission was sought from the government to file a case against him. Sidhu has been the Director General of Police (DGP) from September 2013 to April 2016. The case has been registered under .

Centre may allow compensatory afforestation for Delhi's cleared forest land

The Union environment ministry may allow compensatory afforestation (CA) for all developmental projects undertaken in Delhi in neighbouring states in view of the scarcity of land in the capital, sources have said. A source in the Environment Ministry said they have taken cognizance of the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) letter which said all green areas in the city have saturated and there is a severe shortage of land to raise compensatory afforestation for the upcoming developmental projects. "This is a policy issue. We have taken note of it. There is indeed a shortage of land in Delhi. We are going to take up the matter in a meeting of the Forest Appraisal Committee of the ministry. The request is likely to be accepted," the source said. A senior DDA official said it has denied several requests by user agencies, including the the National Highway Authority of India and Railways, to provide land for compensatory afforestation considering the shortage. In March, the DDA wrote t

Thousands rally in Budapest after govt suspends rules to protect forests

Thousands of Hungarians rallied in Budapest after the government suspended nature conservation rules, particularly those for protecting forests.

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil backs protests against SC ruling on sensitive zones

Order calling for creation of one-km eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around all forest land, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks termed 'unjust and impractical'

Land diversion proposals involving 12 mn trees approved in last 5 yrs: Govt

'At the same time, as many as 20.81 crore seedlings were planted under the compensatory afforestation scheme,' Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Lok Sabha in a written reply

Counting trees: Better data needed to know if India's forests have grown

India's forest cover has increased by 1,540 square kilometre (sq km) between 2019 and 2021, according to the latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR)

Several buildings will have to be demolished: Haryana CM on 'forest land'

Several buildings in Gurugram and Faridabad will have to be demolished if authorities were to remove all structures from 'forest land', the Haryana CM said

India lost 14% tree cover amid Covid, rainforest destruction up 12% in 2020

The resulting carbon emissions from this primary forest loss (2.64 Gt CO2) are equivalent to the annual emissions of 570 million cars

55 hectares of land reclaimed from encroachers for mangrove regeneration

The Bhitarkanika National Park and Revenue department demolished unauthorised prawn dykes and reclaimed 55 hectares of encroached land on the fringe of swampy mangrove forest in Odisha's Kendrapara

First launch since lockdown: PSLV-C49 with earth observation satellite

EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support

Repeated amendments to land diversion laws threatening forests, people

There are no guidelines for what kinds of forests should be nurtured on land taken up for compensatory afforestation

Procedure for forest clearance subverted, turned farcical, says report

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in June that 41 new coal blocks would be opened for auction to the private sector

Increasing green cover

Ambiguity in the definition of forests should be removed

India's forest cover up 5,188 sq km in 2 years, Northeast bucks the trend

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 765 sq km in north east India region

Mumbaikars providing ready-to-grow seed balls to check depletion of forest

Chitra Chauhan set up Beej Box (BB), a platform that provides 10 seed balls for Rs 100, which need to be chucked in the soil to grow a plant

How exemption of 13 railway projects puts wildlife sanctuaries at risk

The Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 prohibits the use of any forest land for non-forest activities

Over 15 lakh acres of forest land in India under encroachment

According to data, Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 5.34 lakh acres of forest area under encroachment as of March 2016.