IN NEWS

Heavier monsoon with climate change

Dipannita Das, TNN, Nov 20, 2010, 05.54am IST

PUNE: Climate change in the next 30-40 years will mean that the monsoon in India may get heavier by 8 to 10 per cent, but there may not be many days of rain, according to weather scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. The temperature will also increase between 1 and 1.5 degree Celsius by 2030, the experts added.
The five-member team used the UK meteorological office s regional climate model called PRECIS (providing climate investigation studies) to arrive at both conclusions. The IITM scientists have been conducting studies and had given their inputs that were included in a report titled 'Climate Change Assessment for 2030,' ………………………………………

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Heavier-monsoon-with-climate-change/articleshow/6957072.cms

UN climate talks must solve forest carbon riddle v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">

Thu, Nov 18 09:22 PM

U.N. climate talks will struggle to agree new greenhouse gas targets next month unless they can solve a complex loophole where developed countries currently ignore emissions from logging plantation forests.Environment ministers from almost 200 countries will gather in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 to try to toughen the world's response to climate change.

U.N. executives want rich countries in Cancun to make present emissions pledges binding under a U.N. deal, now expected to be finalised in December 2011.

One of the biggest hurdles to agreeing such targets is an accounting riddle over how to treat plantation forests: emissions from felling trees are simply ignored under the present Kyoto Protocol, whose first round ends in 2012."It is a big issue particularly when it comes to …………………

http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20101118/776/tsc-un-climate-talks-must-solve-forest-c_1.html

Green wash

NAVIN SINGH KHADKA  NOV 18 -
Amid hectic schedules of the jumbo business delegation he had brought to India recently, US President Barack Obama spared some time for school students to discuss climate change.
“A tree a day will keep global warming away,” The Times of India quoted him as saying to students who had prepared some environmental projects for him in Mumbai. Whether Obama knew it or not, India is already chanting that mantra.
Its Green India Mission (GIM) aims to double afforested and eco-restored areas from the earlier target of 10 million hectares in the next ten years. The GIM is one of the eight missions in India’s national action plan on climate change.
Even before the mission was launched this year, in the last few years the Indian government had strengthened restrictions over tree-cutting resulting in a significant increase in forest coverage. In the past decade, India’s forest area increased by 3.31 million hectares taking the country’s green cover to more than 21 percent of its geographical area. …………………………
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/11/18/oped/green-wash/214998/

Chandigarh gets award for increasing forest cover in city

Punjab Newsline Network

Friday, 19 November 2010

CHANDIGARH: For outstanding work in increasing forest & tree cover in the city, Union Territory of Chandigarh was presented the prestigious Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra (IPVM) Award for the year 2010 in a glittering ceremony held at Hotel Samrat, New Delhi on 19th November,2010, i.e. On the birth day of late Prime minister  Indira Gandhi. 

Director General (Forests) & Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India, Dr. P.J Dilip Kumar presented the award to  the Secretary, Finance cum Forest, Chandigarh Administration, Sh. Sanjay Kumar and Conservator of Forests, U.T Chandigarh, Sh. Santosh Kumar, which included a Citation, Scroll and Award money of Rupees Five lakh.

On this Occasion, Sh. Dr. P.J Dilip Kumar, DG & Special Secretary (Environment & Forest) congratulated  …………………………………………….

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/chandigarh-gets-award-increasing-forest-cover-city/26222

Compromise deal on Navi Mumbai airport

Padmaparna Ghosh, padmaparna.g@livemint.com

The deadlock over the Navi Mumbai airport project, stuck in a wrangle over environmental issues, is set to be broken next week, environment ministerJairam Ramesh said on the sidelines of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.“Next week we will announce the final decision,” Ramesh said. “And you will see we have got a compromise.” Ramesh also sought to dismiss the perception that as a minister he’s acting as a stumbling block to investment and development. Edited excerpts:Do you feel the debate between environment and development is spiralling out of control, more polarized than ever before?

The debate should not be seen as environment versus development or conservation versus growth. ……………………………………

http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/19223356/Compromise-deal-on-Navi-Mumbai.html?atype=tp

Bangladesh okays strict law to protect endangered animals

DHAKA | Sat Nov 20, 2010 4:18am EST

(Reuters) - Bangladesh has approved a law that sets jail terms of up to 12 years for deliberately killing tigers and other wild animals endangered in the South Asian country, officials said on Saturday.A recent cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also agreed to provide reparations to the families of victims killed or maimed by the animals that range between 100,000 taka ($1,415) and 50,000 taka.

Each family will also get 25,000 taka as compensation if wild animals destroy assets such as houses and crops."The cabinet approved jail terms from two years to 12 years for killing endangered snakes and animals including tigers," Hasina's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told Reuters.The minimum jail term will be two years for killing pythons and crocodiles and a maximum of 12 years for killing tigers and elephants, Azad said. …………………….

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AJ0LT20101120

Massive plagues of rats swarm across India every fifty years

ice a century, India is attacked by huge rat armies that devour crops in massive destructive waves and leave people without any food. Scientists long dismissed it as an urban myth...until they discovered that it really happens, and why.

A massive bamboo forest covers about 26,000 square kilometers in a region encompassing northeastern India and parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. For forty-nine out of every fifty years, bamboo is a godsend for farmers, who can use the plant as building material, clothing, and even food. But in the fiftieth year, the bamboo inadvertently creates a rat army of almost mythical proportions that wreaks havoc on the entire ecosystem.

Bamboo is a very aggressive plant, and it tends to muscle out any other surrounding plants. This creates a huge bamboo carpet throughout the forest. Bamboo has a life expectancy of about fifty years, and when the plant nears the end of its life cycle, it releases all its seeds in one fell swoop. The problem is that the bamboo that makes up the carpet is all on roughly ………………

http://io9.com/5694107/massive-plagues-of-rats-swarm-across-india-every-fifty-years

'Maneater' fear stalks Corbett after 2 deaths

Amit Bhattacharya, TNN, Nov 20, 2010, 12.36am IST

Two incidents of local women being mauled and partially eaten by a tiger in and around the Corbett National Park have thrown the area into panic and left forest officials fearing that a big cat in India's most famous reserve may have turned maneater.
The key question officials are seeking to answer is whether the attacks came from the same tiger. They say if that is indeed the case, Corbett may have a maneater problem to deal with. ''At the moment, we have no conclusive evidence either way,'' park warden U C Tiwari told TOI on Friday, after spending the day in the field trying to track the killer.
The incidents have come within six days of each other; the spots separated by just 8-10km ………………..
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6957144.cms

Community Forestry

AUTHOR: G. P. D. Vyas
PUBLISHER: Agrobios (India)
ISBN: 9788177542929
YEAR: 2006
PAGES: 258
SIZE: 14 X 22 X 1.5 cm.
BINDING: Hard
LANGUAGE: English

ABOUT THE BOOK: Forestry is often defined as the manipulation of forests to achieve a desired objective, and it is the objective that distinguishes the different types of forestry. Community trees and forests are valuable for mankind.
Community forestry is defined as forestry by the people of the people, for the people. The people are qualified to mean the involvement of the people rather than the ownership. It is something like rehabilitation of forests for rehabilitation of people through active involvement and participation of the community the government acting as a catalyst and also a partner.
Community forestry activities also include planting in village waste lands, farmer's fields, homesteads, field boundaries, and road sides, Railway lines canal banks etc. Forests for local community use is, therefore not a new concept but anew attempt to promote forestry development by involving community aiming towards meeting their own needs.
The book includes chapters: Benefits of Trees, History of Community Forestry in India, Community Forestry: Present Scenario, Community Forestry and Indian Rural Economy, Forest Resources, Deforestation, Degradation and Management, Community Forestry in The South Asia Sub-Region, The Status of Forestry: Research, Education and Training in India, Extension Education For Community Forestry, Selection and Planting of Suitable Tree Species for Community Forestry, and Nursery Procedure.

http://cgi.ebay.in/Community-Forestry-/320619108669