NEW DELHI, April 22 — The clamour for additional funds by the north-eastern States notwithstanding, the Department of Development of the North-eastern Region (DoNER) has sanctioned less than 50 per cent of the cost of the sanctioned projects indicating that release out of the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) were far less than accruals to the pool. What is perhaps more startling was the fact that as opposed to the mandatory release of the 10 per cent of the gross budgetary support (GBS) for the north-eastern region (NER), some Central ministries and departments have been able to...

NEW DELHI, April 22 — The nightmare of eviction drives on the forest land in the State may come back to haunt Assam Government, with the Union Environment and Forest Ministry putting its foot down on encroachment of forestland, even as the State’s is ranked eighth in the country in term of forest cover, which was estimated at 35.33 per cent. With the Supreme Court keeping a close watch on the issue, Union Environment and Forest Minister, TR Baalu today clarified that eviction drives to remove the unlawful people away from the forest land has to continue. The Minister, however, added that...

AGARTALA, April 22 — The Rubber Development Board has decided to bring 5000 hectares of fresh land under plantation programme in Tripura in the Tenth Five Year Plan, according to Commissioner of the Board S Krishnakumar, reports PTI. The total outlay for rubber development in the Tenth Plan proposal in North East is Rs 84 crore of which Rs 40 crore has been alloted for Tripura, Krishnakumar told reporters here Sunday.

The Commissioner said Tripura stands second to Kerala in rubber production in the country. He said as per the Tenth Plan proposal, 5000 hectares of land will be utilised for...

SHILLONG, April 22 — The idea of flushing out the northeast militant organizations—United Liberation Front of Asson (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO) —from the soils of Bhutan through the joint army action by India and Bhutan has gradually faded away, reports North East Press Service. Although Bhutan Government had already appreciated the idea of joint military action to flush out the northeast militant organizations from its soil, the Government (Bhutan) had reportedly signaled the would-be consequences if such military action was...

Guwahati, April 22: It is a debate of elephantine proportions, rooted in the jungles of Chattisgarh and spreading across states to finally echo in the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the centre of the debate is Parbati Barua, Asia’s only female elephant trainer. She is being hounded for allegedly using cruel and archaic methods to capture a rogue elephant in Chattisgarh in February, leading to the animal’s death.

A member of the steering committee of Project Elephant, which is being implemented by the Union ministry of environment and forests, wrote to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee recently...