Assam CM Announces Major Forest Reforms To Prevent Mishaps outlookindia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from outlookindia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Representational image. | Reuters
The central government is once again making a move to amend the Indian Forest Act 1927 even as the effort made last time led to a serious pushback from civil society.
On April 8, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change called for Expression of Interest for shortlisting consultancy organisations that could prepare a draft comprehensive amendment to the 1927 Act.
Brought in India’s pre-independence period, the 94-year-old law was meant to consolidate all the then laws relating to forests, the transit of forest produce and the duty leviable on timber and other forest produce.
The ministry emphasised that the objective of this latest exercise is to prepare a “draft of the comprehensive amendment of Indian Forest Act, 1927” in consultation with state governments and Union Territories, central government ministries and other stakeholders.
Setting Aside Environmental Concerns, J&K Govt Clears Transfer of Land for Ujh Project
The geography-altering project is being constructed at a cost of Rs 9,167 crore on Ujh, a tributary of the Ravi river, for which 4,350 hectares of land has been identified by the J&K administration in Jammuâs Kathua district.
Representational image of river Ravi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Government3 hours ago
Srinagar: Setting aside grave environmental concerns, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has set the ball rolling to transfer hundreds of hectares of eco-fragile forest land for the construction of the strategic Ujh multipurpose project in the Jammu region.
State-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) neither applied technical due diligence nor conducted techno-commercial study to assess viability before the allotment of its captive coal blocks at Parbatpur and Sitanala, audit report no 18 of 2020 of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG) said today. These two blocks, which had to be subsequently surrendered, hence resulted in the amount spent on development of the same infructuous, examined the audit. The audit released today examined records of all captive mines of SAIL for the period 2014-19 to assess the management of captive mines and compliance with safety and environmental laws. The report pointed out that since the company’s iron ore production level, at Dalli, Rajhara and Barsua mines were lower than planned, it resulted in transfer of the key raw material from distantly located mines by the Bhilai Steel Plant and Rourkela Steel Plant leading to extra expenditure on freight differential.
Digital database to keep an eye on Odisha’s forest cover Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra Sunday chaired a review meeting of state-level Compensatory Afforestation fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and directed the officials concerned to make a digital database of forest assets.
Mohapatra told the Forest department officials to ensure that the digital database is in public domain and updated regularly. The top bureaucrat of the state also asked the officials to increase the green areas on bald hills through plantation and regeneration activities. The department was asked to put in place a robust system for ground-level monitoring and public disclosure.