Union minister of state for forests Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday announced a recovery programme for saving critically endangered species and their habitats.

Under the initiative, 16 species have been identified for support. This includes snow leopard, bustards (including floricans), dolphin, hangul, Nilgiri tahr, marine turtles, dugongs and coral reefs, edible nest swiftlet, Asian wild buffalo, Nicobar megapode, Manipur brow-antlered deer, vultures, Malabar civet, Indian rhinoceros, asiatic lion, swamp deer and jerdon’s courser.

A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is yet to catch up with the ground reality of the number of species of critically endangered birds in the country. When environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan released a book on Tuesday, which updates the list of birds facing a threat of extinction in India, it perhaps escaped her mind that the ministry’s official list is outdated.

A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Taking a stern stand against poachers, Maharashtra Government on Tuesday decided that action taken by forest authorities against those caught while hunting down tigers will not be considered a crime.

Talking to reporters here, Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said if the forest officials fire upon the poachers injuring or killing them, the action will not be considered a crime

Forestry authorities in Northwestern China's Gansu province said Monday that they have started the first wide-ranging census and DNA collection on endangered wild giant pandas.

Zoologists will comb forests in southern Gansu's city of Longnan and nine counties in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gannan to track individual wild pandas, said Ouyang Feng, who works with the giant panda protection office of the Gansu provincial forestry bureau.

India on Monday signed joint resolutions with Nepal and Russia on trans-border co-operation to conserve the tiger. The resolutions were signed during the three-day Global Tiger Recovery Programme conference held in New Delhi.

The global conference of 13 tiger range countries for the first time took stock of efforts to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. While reporting a significant progress, the meeting recognised the need for intensive action to halt poaching.

Shillong: With an aim to enhance fish seed production and impart knowledge to the farmers of the state on modern technology of aquaculture especially breeding technique, the Fisheries department has come up with a full- fledged research centre at Ri Bhoi which will be inaugurated on Thursday.

The first of its kind in the State, the Mawpun farm-cum-research centre at Ri Bhoi is expected to enhance the fish seed production with a target of about 25 lakh fries. It will be a demonstration centre to all fish farmers for breeding, feeding and the like.