Several hundred acres of cultivable land in the district loses fertility every year as brick kilns are collecting huge quantities of earth from the topsoil of agricultural lands for making bricks.

Consequently, the affected lands remain uncultivable and fallow for years, affecting overall crop production.

The situation sees a worsening trend due to lack of strong monitoring from the district and upazila administrations.

The Planning Commission hailed it as a future fuel and the industry projected it as a viable biofuel crop. But the Union Rural Development Ministry led by Jairam Ramesh feels otherwise. Citing negative reports, the Ministry has put on hold the Jatropha plantation programme for biofuel purpose. It has thus also put a question mark on the future of the proposed National Mission on biofuels.

NEW DELHI, May 7 – Contrary to reports about massive erosion of Majuli island, the Centre on Monday claimed that the total land mass of the river island has increased marginally. Based on satellite imagery, the land mass of the island was calculated at 520.26 sq km. The total area of the land mass of Majuli main island, according to satellite imagery, was found to be 502.21 sq km in 2004. The total area based on the satellite imagery as of February 2011 has been found to be 520.26 sq km.

NEW DELHI: Rapping the rural development ministry's land resources department for the "inordinate delay" in finalising a bio-fuels programme, a parliamentary panel has sought for the matter be placed before the cabinet at the earliest for a decision on its continuance.

NEW DELHI, 29 APRIL: The Union rural development ministry has claimed that the West Bengal government has “not submitted a single project” under the integrated watershed programme in the last three years while a few states have not spent a single penny on the programme in the last financial year.
According to sources, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, has written to the chief ministers of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha for reportedly not spending any funds under the Integrated Watershed Management (IWMP) programme for the financial year 2011-12.

New Delhi: Over two years after the environment and forests ministry ordered so, the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), which gives green nod to divert forests for projects, decided that it would not entertain proposals until resolutions from affected gram sabhas favouring the projects are submitted.

At least 141 incidents of forest fires have taken place in Uttarakhand since the beginning of March which has affected about 200 hectares of forest land. However, unofficial sources claim that nearly 1,000 hectares forest land has been affected by forest fires. While Forest Department officials avert that all necessary measures are being taken to tackle forest fires, environmentalists complain that the efforts are not enough to mitigate this phenomenon.

NAVI MUMBAI: An environmentalist from the city has complained to the ministry of environment and forests that the proposed airport at Navi Mumbai received the environment clearance in 2010 as CIDCO, the nodal agency of the project, did not reveal to the authorities the presence of 130 hectares of reserved forest land in the area.

Besides, the distance between the airport and the Karnala bird sanctuary is less than the prescribed 10km, though while asking for the green nod, the officials had wrongly shown it to be more than 10km.