The personnel of Forest Department and the police on Monday evicted a group of tribespeople, owing allegiance to the pro-CPI(M) Adivasi Kshema Samiti (AKS), who had encroached upon 17.65 hectares of vested forest at Thumbassery, near Makkiyad, under the North Wayanad Forest Division in the district.

In the peaceful action, the police arrested 60 people, including 42 men, 14 women, and four children. The eviction team destroyed the 40 huts put up by the tribespeople. (The eviction team had held discussions with AKS leaders and members before the eviction, sources said.).

KOZHIKODE: The latest series of land agitations started by the tribal people in Wayanad district on May 7 has intensified with more vested forest lands being encroached on Monday. New encroachments of forest lands by erecting huts under the aegis of Adivasi Congress, the tribal arm of the Congress, have been reported from Thavinchal 44, Kaithakolli Vattikunnu near Mananthavady.

A total of 200 acres of land, which includes Revenue, Forest and Devaswom land, was encroached by around 170 Paniya families at Edapetti.

KOCHI: A rich tiger population and proximity to other national wildlife sanctuaries like Nagarhole, Bandipur and Mudumalai are proving to be highly advantageous for Wayanad in its race for a tiger reserve.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has expressed its willingness to consider a tiger reserve in Wayanad, provided a proposal comes from the Kerala government. However, the state government is yet to take a final decision.

A team of scientists from the University of Kerala; Central University, Kasaragod; and Natural History Museum, London, have reported the discovery of a new species of caecilian (limbless) amphibian from the southern region of the Western Ghats in Kerala.

Gegeneophis primus belongs to the Indotyphlidae family comprising African, Seychellean and Indian varieties. It is the first new species of Gegeneophis reported from Kerala since1964.

Studies carried out by a team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) have revealed high levels of phosphorus in the soil samples from Kozhikode and Wayanad districts.

Overuse of chemical fertilisers and neglect towards soil test-based fertiliser recommendations have resulted in imbalances in the nutrient levels of the soils, according to IISR.

As many as 67 families are preparing to leave their settlements in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWLS) under a voluntary relocation project of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the project at a function at Naikkatty, near Sulthan Bathery, at 1 p.m. on Monday.

It is one of the major voluntary relocation projects outside the tiger reserves in South India. Forty-nine eligible families, including 24 tribal families in the Golur and Ammavayal settlements (two settlements inside the core area of the sanctuary)

Even as Tamil Nadu is opposed to the idea of a new dam instead of the present one at Mullaperiyar, the Kerala Budget for 2012-13 has set aside Rs 50 crore for preliminary work on a new dam. Finance Minister K M Mani, whose party, the Kerala Congress, has been at the forefront of the recent agitation demanding a new dam, said the existing Mullaperiyar dam is a matter of grave security concern for the people in five Kerala districts. Hence, a new protection dam would be constructed 1,300 feet downstream from the existing one.

The Union Government today informed the Kerala High Court that no farmers suicides were reported from Kerala during 2009-11.

According to reports furnished by the state government, there has been a declining trend in suicides in farming.

In the report indicating number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian reasons, no cases were reported from Kerala in the three years from 2009-11, Ms Sadhana Khanna, Under Secretary, Agriculture Department, said in a counter affidavit on a petition seeking to take steps to curb suicides among poor farmers in Kerala.

Depletion of bamboo clusters in Kerala’s Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is threatening to make the coming summer hard for several species of wildlife there and in the adjoining forests that constitute the Nilgiris biosphere. Experts say that the phenomenon could even lead to a famine as far as Wayanad jungles’ herbivores are concerned.