JAIPUR: Following a Supreme Court directive in April this year to demarcate and notify buffer zone around the Ranthambore and Sariska tiger reserves within three months or face the heat, the state forest department has made giant progress in the matter.

According to sources in the forest department, work in this regard at both the tiger reserves is nearing completion. The final report is yet to be prepared but a meeting has been held and the areas to be demarcated as buffer zones have been identified.

Jaipur: With a view to increase the forest cover in the state, it has been proposed to confer the status of conservation reserves on eleven forests in the state. With that the total number of conservation reserves will go up to 24.

According to VS Singh, additional chief secretary, environment and forests, “The state wildlife board has given its approval and seven forest areas are to be notified, and is awaiting government approval in the cabinet

Hazaribagh, April 8: Being eco-friendly is today’s mantra for a safe planet. Following the trend, Central Coal Fields Limited (CCL) has decided to put its best foot forward by starting a campaign to plant 50,000 saplings of fruit-bearing trees at the abandoned Sangam coal mine at Bhurkunda in neighbouring Ramgarh district.

Speaking to The Telegraph, chief general manager of CCL’s Barka Sayal project Sumit Ghosh said that two ecological experts from the Jawaharlal Nehru University visited the mine in mid-March.

The capacity of the Ramgarh gas-based thermal power plant, situated 60 km away from Jaisalmer, is being expanded with the installation of two new units of the total volume of 160 megawatt in the project's third stage. The plant's present capacity is 110.5 MW.

According to Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam chairman and managing director P. N. Singhal here on Thursday, one of the units with the capacity of 110 MW will be gas-based, while the other (50 MW) will be steam-based. Work on their establishment is in progress, he said.

Ranchi, Jan. 16: Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), one of the country’s leading players in steel, power, mining, oil & gas and infrastructure, has been incurring losses to the tune of Rs 23 crore every month due to non-availability of land for expanding its Patratu facility. The company, which recently pumped more than Rs 2,000 crore in its wire rod mill and bar rod mill plants in Patratu, has, in view of its losses, already shifted 100-odd employees to its Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) and Angul (Odisha) units.

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to name those officials who made illegal allotments in the catchment area of Ramgarh dam and also the list of those influential persons who got the land in that area.

Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari asked the government to file the compliance report by January 31, 2012. The court also stayed all land allotments in the catchment areas of the dam, rivers, nullahs or any other water body in the state with immediate effect.

Illegal Constructions By NIMS, Sown Crops Removed On Day 1 Of Eviction Drive In Catchment Areas Of Dam

Jaipur: Acting on the Rajasthan High Court directive, district administration on Friday launched an anti-encroachment drive in the catchment area of Ramgarh dam. On the first day of this three-day drive, the officials demolished the boundary wall and constructions on the playground area of the National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS) University among other things.

A Central Empowered Committee team, which came to take stock of rampant illegal mining in the Aravallis on the basis of a Supreme Court directive, was prevented from visiting the places by mining mafia who put large boulders on the road.

JAIPUR: Half-a-dozen top bureaucrats of the state government faced flak from the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday for failing to take effective measures to remove encroachments from the Ramgarh Dam's catchment area.

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has taken a serious note of the government apathy in removing encroachment in and around the Ramgarh dam and its catchment area.

In his order during the hearing of the case, Justice M N Bhandari has directed the principal secretaries of forest, revenue, public health and irrigation, water resources, panchayati raj and mining departments and the Jaipur Development Authority commissioner to be present in court on December 1.