The Madras high court on Friday upheld a trial court order convicting over 200 men, including forest and police officials and sentencing them to various prison terms for atrocities committed against tribals including rape, where the victims included a minor girl and a pregnant woman.
Over 200 people and two Indian Air Force helicopters were pressed into service to control a wildfire spread over 10 sq km of the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan's Alwar, officials said on Tuesday.
Four persons, including a forest guard, were killed in violence at the Assam-Meghalaya border in West Karbi Anglong district in the early hours of Tuesday after a truck transporting illegal timber was intercepted, officials said.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has accused "some agencies with vested interests" of misleading the Centre about the ongoing crisis in the state, calling it an attempt to destabilize Manipur. He emphasized the need for unity among Manipuris and criticized the 2005 Suspension of Operations (SOO) agreement, blaming it for the current unrest. Singh also condemned the recent killing of two non-Manipuris, calling it a politically motivated move to create an atmosphere of fear.
Superintendent of Police Malla Reddy said Koneru Krishna, brother of TRS MLA Koneru Kannappa, has been arrested and booked under various sections of the IPC.
Shops and markets have been opened in the morning while vehicles run on the roads in Churachandpur town where the maximum protests and violence took place on Friday and Saturday, officials said.
The Manipur land resources department has lodged an FIR against the Kuki National Front (Military Council), a militant organisation, for promoting enmity between different groups in the state.
'I don't believe there is an international conspiracy to swamp tribals in India or in Jharkhand.'
'It is also being done in violation of our Forest Tribal Act because it will involve the eviction of the tribals living in these forests.'
According to the national park's range forest officer Ankur Patel, blackbucks keep moving from one place to another, and the video was shot a few days back by a Gram Rakshak Dal jawan stationed at a police check post on Dholera-Bhavnagar highway.
In an unusual incident, a person narrowly escaped getting unhurt while trying to click a selfie with a python in Rajasthan's Mount Abu district.
A large number of villagers gathered at the scene and captured the crocodile using a net, insisting that the child was still alive in its stomach, he said, adding that some villagers wanted to slit open the reptile's stomach.
India as a sovereign democratic republic completed 75 years of its eventful journey on Sunday, with the stage set at the Kartavya Path in New Delhi for the ceremonial parade during which the country will showcase its military prowess and rich cultural heritage.
Several people are still feared trapped in the debris after a series of landslides that occurred in Chooralmala and Mundakkai of Wayanad.
'It was a war-like situation, but instead of enemy fire, we fought against the vagaries of nature,' says Major Seeta Shelke.
The CM will be accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the tunnel site on Sunday.
The roads will reduce the distance to the border considerably and make easier the movement of Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel, who at present have walk up to 25 kms to reach there, officials said.
We found that there have been violations not only by Sharma, but 50-60 other flat owners also," Assistant Forest Conservator Makarand Ghodke said.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
The apex court directed the CBI, which is already probing the case, to file its status report in the matter within three months.
Local officials said no casualties have been reported due to Wednesday's quake that hit the Madoi County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province of northwest China at 3:44 pm (Beijing time), tremors for which were also felt in north-eastern Nepal.
As per the officials, the cubs which were born to a Namibian cheetah on March 24, died from apparent dehydration and weakness within the fenced area housing the mother and cubs.
The Kerala forest department is of the view that unrestricted entry of vehicles for ferrying pilgrims into the Pullumedu trekking path was one of the factors that paved the way for the January 14 stampede that claimed the lives of 102 Sabarimala pilgrims.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram's budget may have evoked mixed reactions across the country but it has brought a smile on the faces of officials in the Forest Department. The Forest Department in Karnataka, which is all smiles after the state was ranked second in tiger conservation, says the additional allocation of funds will help them go about their job better.
Shah said the decision was taken to free the nation from colonial imprints as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands had an "unparalleled place" in the country's freedom struggle and history.
A decision on reopening the schools is likely to be taken in a review meeting after the Forest Department submits a report later on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a wild boar bit a person in another part of the city on Thursday.
Forty-five specialists will soon be joining key posts of joint secretaries, directors and deputy secretaries in different central ministries as part of the Modi government's ambitious plan to infuse fresh talent to further improve ease of governance.
A week after expanding his cabinet, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday allocated portfolios to the seven new inductees and also effected a reshuffle of the departments of some ministers.
To ensure sharper focus on wildlife-related issues and the Forest Conservation Act, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the setting up of a separate department for wildlife and forests.
Twenty people were gunned down in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district in a police operation said to be against red sanders smugglers that came under severe attack from the government and political parties in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which claimed 12 victims were labourers from their state.
Delhi authorities are taking steps to deploy langur mimics and put up cut-outs of the simians at vantage points to scare away monkeys during the G20 Summit in the national capital.
Though the legislator of Rupohihat, Nurul Huda, stopped the drive in Sitalmari area of Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary for a while claiming it was illegal, the exercise resumed later, a senior official said.
More than two decades after deserting their village due to Maoists, around 25 tribal families are planning to return to their native place in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
The proposed changes, as per the draft, could continue some of the existing conflict between wildlife protection regulations with the implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006, which gives rights to tribals in all kinds of traditional forest lands -- including the wildlife zones, such as national parks. The new proposed law, just as the original one from 1972, does not explicitly recognise these rights in all wildlife areas.
A report says that six tigers and 86 leopards were killed in Uttarakhand in a span of 14 months since the beginning of 2012 with unnatural factors like illegal poaching and accidents responsible for the deaths of 32 of them.
In its reply to the MoEF dated August 13, the department of forest and environment has categorically stated that there are no traditional forest dwellers at the Posco site. It has also clarified that there are no claimants under the Forest Rights Act and certain land records pertaining to the erstwhile Bardhaman estate are not authentic.
The case was filed by the forest department following recovery of a live cheetal and cheetal and tiger skins along with some photographs depicting Shahabuddin posing with a rifle over a dead cheetal from his house at Pratappur in Siwan.
Former Maharashtra minister Dharamrao Baba Atram, charged with killing of a chinkara deer, was on Friday arrested by Forest Department officials at Bhor in Pune district.Atram surrendered before the Sub-Divisional Forest Department office on Thursday, meeting the deadline set by the Bombay High Court after it rejected his anticipatory bail plea.The arrest took place after two days of intensive interrogation of the Nationalist Congress Party leader, by forest officers.
The actor-turned-politician has been allotted Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Environment, Forests, and Science and Technology portfolios.
