Chevron said Friday that it had no intention of apologizing for the environmental damage to the Amazon rain forest for which an Ecuadorean court ruled it responsible. Attorneys for both sides have said that if Chevron apologized, its legal liability of $18 billion would have been cut to $9.5 billion. Ecuador’s judiciary had set Friday as the deadline for an apology. James Craig, a Chevron spokesman, said an apology would be “a false admission of responsibility.” Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, so the plaintiffs must to try to collect the award abroad.

Gangtok, Feb. 3: The Sikkim forest department will receive Rs 13.12 crore from a Japanese government agency to rebuild the infrastructure damaged in last year’s earthquake. The amount has been sanctioned by the Japanese International Co-operation Agency that is funding a project to ensure alternative livelihood for people living on forest fringes in Sikkim. The release of the amount was announced by JICA representative Vineet Sarin during a review of the Sikkim Biodiversity Conservation and Forest Management Project (SBFP) here today.

The Government has announced the creation of six projects in public-private partnership mode in non-timber forest produce (NTFP), covering around 60 Naxal-affected districts in the country.

The projects, to be executed within six months, will cover Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, according to a Rural Development Ministry release here on Friday.

‘Concerted efforts necessary to prevent human-elephant conflict'

A day-long sensitisation programme under the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity and Greening Project for members of Village Forest Councils and anti-poaching watchers was organised by the Nilgiris North division of the Forest Department here on Friday.Listing the objectives and use of such programmes, District Forest Officer, the Nilgiris North, S. Ramasubramaniam said that without the support of people particularly those residing in villages located in and around the forests, conservation would become an uphill task.

JAMMU: Highlighting the State's rich bio-diversity and uniqueness of being land of rich fauna and flora, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Friday emphasized the need for protection and preservation of this individuality of Jammu and Kashmir.

Chairing the 2nd meeting of State Board for Wildlife (SBW), the Chief Minister, who is also its Chairman, said that measures should be in place to minimize wild animal-human conflict.

Early next month, the Obama administration will finalize important and long overdue rules for the management of 155 national forests covering nearly 200 million acres. The rules will guide individual forest managers as they decide which parts of the forest can safely be opened to logging, mining and recreation, and which parts must be set aside to protect wildlife and the health of the forest.

Company violating guidelines, says MoEF panel

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Committee, which visited the mini-hydel power project sites in the Western Ghats following an order of the High Court of Karnataka, has found glaring violation of the Wildlife Act by privately owned Maruthi Power (Gen) India Private Limited (MPIPL).

Sri Lanka's overall environmental performance is improving and the country has been ranked as a modest performer according to a study on global environment released during this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.

Sri Lanka has been ranked at the 55th place, six places below the United States ranked at 49th, in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) prepared by the Yale University in the United States.