Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court

The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.

Rajasthan, which had prided itself on leading the way in relocation of villagers from its tiger reserves, is now facing a backlash. Villagers living inside Sariska reserve are in agitation mode and are refusing to be relocated.

Their complaint is that the `10 lakhs being offered to them by the government is completely inadequate. Gujjar leader Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla is also supporting their agitation which is also being fuelled by mine owners who operate on the boundaries of Sariska and who want to restart their mining operations.

BHUBANESWAR: More than four years after Satkosia was designated a Tiger Reserve, the Odisha Government has finally brought Mahanadi Wildlife Division under the unified control of the Field Director, meeting a long-standing demand of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The Regional Conservator of Forests (RCCF), Angul, is the Field Director of Satkosia Tiger Reserve which comprises two wildlife sanctuaries such as Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary and Baisipally Sanctuary, both protected areas contiguous in nature.

CANNING, 22 MAY: Demanding their right to the forest, Sunderbans fishermen here today said it is forest department officials who flout rules in the biosphere reserve, not villagers. "We want immediate implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006, in the islands so that high-handedness of the forest officials stops," said Sunderbans Fishworkers Joint Action Committee member Pabitra Mondal.

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

Forest officers in the district are all set to participate in the three-day synchronised elephant census that will begin across six states on Tuesday.

Chamarajanagar district has the distinction of having the highest density of elephant population in the State. Bandipur National Park, Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger Reserve Forest, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Kollegal Forest Division are other important habitats for elephants in the State. More than 600 enumerators, including forest watchers, students of forestry colleges, volunteers and representatives of NGOs working in the field of wildlife will take part in the census in the district’s forest region.

The other surprise in the railway budget is a new line that Mamata Banerjee wished in the heart of Buxa Tiger Reserve
DEEP INSIDE the core of Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal and at the heart of a vast forest landscape that includes Bhutan’s Phipsu wildlife sanctuary is the settlement of Jayanti. Set up during the Raj to facilitate mining, this was a busy railway station transporting dolomite and limestone till the mid-1980s before conservation became the priority.

The farmers are demanding lifting of ban on registration of land in 164 villages in the area that was imposed in 1987 and announcing forest road leading to Sariska as national highway.

"The government did not fulfill its promises which it had made to the farmers earlier. They made the national highway, a lifeline for all the villages in the area, as forest road. This time we will not make any agreement with the government unless they accept our demands," he added.

The Naxalites are expanding their tentacles into the tiger territory. Thirty per cent of India’s tiger reserves are already under their control.

Indian forest officials, from the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, present at the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP), complained of increasing Naxal infiltration in India’s heartland. The tiger reserves comprising Valmiki in Bihar, Palamau in Jharkhand, Indravati in Chhattisgarh, Buxa in West Bengal and Simplipal in Orissa are some of the reserves bearing the brunt of the Naxal menace.

Project Tiger is not the great success story that the government would have you believe. India has lost 32 tigers in the last four months with two tigers having being killed last month in Tadoba Tiger Reserve by poachers using iron foot-traps.

Fourteen of these tigers have been lost to poachers till May 2012, minister for environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters on the sidelines of the first stocktaking meeting to review the implementation of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. “The remaining 18 tigers died natural deaths and we are constantly looking into reasons for this,” the minister said.