Efforts are being made to create a Unified Higher Education System in the country so as to phase out stand-alone and domain-specific colleges and promote higher education institutions that are multi-disciplinary in nature.
In major decision taken to address the scarcity of land, the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) Maharashtra has invited applications from renowned educational institutions and colleges operating in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad and other metro cities of the state to open “Vertical University Campus”.
Rainforest Trust and our long-time partner, KTK-BELT have recently created two protected areas in Nepal’s Himalayas totalling 261,557 acres––that’s one-third larger than New York City. This is the biggest step so far in our joint multi-year, multi-project mission to save habitat in a “belt” from the country’s lowlands, all the way up to the Himalayas through community outreach and land protection.
Newly protected valley in the Himalayas. Photo by KTK-BELT.
The most recent of these designations took place this month with the creation of the Lungbasamba Landscape Biocultural Heritage and Ecotourism Special Conservation Zone, spanning 176,630-acres of high-altitude rugged mountain landscape. This followed our success in September––establishing the 84,927-acre Topkegola Biocultural Heritage and Ecotourism Special Conservation Zone. Both of these projects safeguard critical mountain forest habitat from threats of deforestation from road construction and commercial deve