Protection of five river valley basins tops its agenda

The Western Ghats Task Force has submitted a proposal to recruit 1,000 forest personnel required to protect the natural forests of the Western Ghats. This was announced by Ananth Hegde Ashisara, chairperson of the Task Force, at a meeting on the protection of environment, forests and bio-diversity and pollution control at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the city on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has directed closure of all unauthorised sandalwood oil factories in the country and asked the Centre to formulate a suitable policy for conservation of sandalwood, particularly red sanders which is said to endangered. “We are giving this direction since it is reported that nowhere in the world, this species is seen except in India and we owe an obligation to the world to safeguard this endangered species for posterity,” the court said.

Kannada movie on brigand’s life being shot inside elephant habitat

violation: Crew members of ‘Attahaasa’ shooting in a forest in Chamarajanagar district. ‘Attahaasa’, a Kannada film based on slain forest brigand Veerappan, is again in the news for the wrong reasons. The movie by A M R Ramesh of ‘Cyanide’ fame is being shot in the forest area in violation of the Forest Act.

The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday chided the Forest department for attempting to award ''huge'' punishment for a ''trivial'' offence.

The Division Bench consisting Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna did not agree with the government advocate’s claim that Fayaz Khan, a resident of Channapatna, was guilty of illegally stocking sandalwood nine years ago.

Area selected for project is near tank that quenches animals’ thirst

The State government’s initiative to restore the glory of ‘Gandhadagudi’ (abode of sandalwood) in the State through its ‘Siri Chandanavana’ project does not seem to be in order.

The 134.88 sq km area of Chincholi forest in Karnataka has now been declared South India’s first dryland wildlife sanctuary to protect the prime wolf and hyena habitat.

The Karnataka State Forest Department notified the forest on November 28, marking another step by Karnataka to conserve prime wolf and hyena habitat of Chincholi forest spread across Gulbarga and Yadgir districts. It will be named as the ‘Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary.’

The State Forest department has decided to grow over 20 lakh sandalwood trees on 2,000 acres of land at a cost of Rs 50 crore in nine districts of the State.

Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara told mediapersons on Monday that the project, implemented in Mysore on a pilot basis, would be extended to other parts of the State.

The Forest Department will shortly provide a revolving fund of Rs three lakh to each village forest committee across the State, under a Rs 1,100-crore special project, Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara announced on Wednesday.

Amid reports about smuggling of red sandalwood (Rakta Chandan) from India to China via Nepal, India has sought the Government of Nepal’s help in controlling the organised illegal trade. A senior official of the Department of Customs (DoC) said India has requested DoC through diplomatic channel.

“India has requested us through diplomatic channel to help control the smuggling of red sandalwood,” said the official. “They have asked us to step up vigil at customs points, making it clear that they would also take measures to control the smuggling.”

To make sandalwood cultivation viable for farmers, the ruling BJP Government in Karnataka is proposing to amend the Tree Act.

According to State Forest Minister CH Vijayshankar, the proposed amendment is aimed at allowing farmers to grow sandalwood tree in their farms, own and sell them at the market price.