Forest Mafia

Members of the mining mafia in Antri district of Gwalior freed a tractor which had been seized by the forest officials but while they were taking it away, it overturned and they fled. Now the police are searching for them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the previous state and central governments of devastating the Bundelkhand region by handing over its resources and forests to mafia elements who "looted" them.

Congress-led United Democratic Front leaders staged a walkout from Kerala Assembly, alleging that Left government of shielding culprits in the illegal recent mass felling and smuggling of trees by forest mafia in the revenue land allotted to farmers.

A 35-year-old man was arrested early Saturday for allegedly running over and killing a Forest Department officer with a sand-laden tractor-trolley, police said.

A forest guard was run over by men who were illegally transporting sand in Madhya Pradesh's Chambal area on Friday. The guard had tried to stop a tractor, carrying sand in Morena, the police told NDTV.

Sushil Modi, Bihar's new deputy chief minister, has said he will expose in the next three days what he alleges are Lalu Yadav's links with Bihar's sand mafia. Mr Modi, who is the new Forest Minister too, has also ordered a fresh investigation into a "soil scam" and his predecessor Tej Pratap Yadav's alleged role in it. Tej Pratap is the son of Lalu...

Seven bulldozers razed some 6,000 trees in the dead of night in Faridabad's Aravali area on Saturday. The machines started moving slowly, bringing the trees down one by one, just after dusk on Saturday and continued till Sunday. Environment activists alleged the night-long 'operation' was strategically timed as Monday being Eid holiday, no stay ord...

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday asked officials to adopt zero-tolerance towards illegal mining, days after a forest department employee was killed allegedly by mining mafia in Ramnagar.

BJP lawmaker Tarun Vijay today urged the central government to "enact a law to prescribe life imprisonment" for people found guilty of causing forest fires in the country and said forest mafias were responsible for the devastating Uttarakhand forest fire.

Felling of trees is rampant in Jammu and Kashmir, where timber smugglers and forest officials are party to illegal timber trade. Almost 13, 000 hectares of forest land is reportedly under illegal occupation in the state.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday ruled out the creation of new districts in the state and said that he was not in favour of further division of Kangra, the biggest district in the state.

For the first time since young civil servant Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended by the Uttar Pradesh Government for allegedly taking on the sand mining mafia, three central services - the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFS) - have come together and have sought the changes in the ru...

Kashmir's vast forest cover has virtually vanished - chopped down by smugglers, or cleared by land mafias in pursuit of the real estate goldmine that the Valley had become. The massive vandalisation is the collateral damage of a violent conflict.

Sonaullah Zargar, a 30-year-old forest activist, who was dedicated to protecting the Sukhnag Forests in Budgam, was found dead in the Valley. His body was found near a stream a week ago.Initially Zargar's death was passed off as an accident but now the police suspect the timber mafia as well as corrupt forest staff to be behind his death. The Block...

Based on information from a source, the Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) was nabbed on the outskirts of the city, while carrying a bribe amount of Rs 8 lakh on Sunday.ADG of police, R K Dutta, who is supervising investigations, said that a team of Lokayukta sleuths intercepted DCF Narayana Swamy between Kollegala and Bangalore, and seized Rs 8 la...

Members of the mining mafia in Antri district of Gwalior freed a tractor which had been seized by the forest officials but while they were taking it away, it overturned and they fled. Now the police are searching for them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the previous state and central governments of devastating the Bundelkhand region by handing over its resources and forests to mafia elements who "looted" them.

Congress-led United Democratic Front leaders staged a walkout from Kerala Assembly, alleging that Left government of shielding culprits in the illegal recent mass felling and smuggling of trees by forest mafia in the revenue land allotted to farmers.

A 35-year-old man was arrested early Saturday for allegedly running over and killing a Forest Department officer with a sand-laden tractor-trolley, police said.

A forest guard was run over by men who were illegally transporting sand in Madhya Pradesh's Chambal area on Friday. The guard had tried to stop a tractor, carrying sand in Morena, the police told NDTV.

Sushil Modi, Bihar's new deputy chief minister, has said he will expose in the next three days what he alleges are Lalu Yadav's links with Bihar's sand mafia. Mr Modi, who is the new Forest Minister too, has also ordered a fresh investigation into a "soil scam" and his predecessor Tej Pratap Yadav's alleged role in it. Tej Pratap is the son of Lalu...

Seven bulldozers razed some 6,000 trees in the dead of night in Faridabad's Aravali area on Saturday. The machines started moving slowly, bringing the trees down one by one, just after dusk on Saturday and continued till Sunday. Environment activists alleged the night-long 'operation' was strategically timed as Monday being Eid holiday, no stay ord...

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday asked officials to adopt zero-tolerance towards illegal mining, days after a forest department employee was killed allegedly by mining mafia in Ramnagar.

BJP lawmaker Tarun Vijay today urged the central government to "enact a law to prescribe life imprisonment" for people found guilty of causing forest fires in the country and said forest mafias were responsible for the devastating Uttarakhand forest fire.

Felling of trees is rampant in Jammu and Kashmir, where timber smugglers and forest officials are party to illegal timber trade. Almost 13, 000 hectares of forest land is reportedly under illegal occupation in the state.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday ruled out the creation of new districts in the state and said that he was not in favour of further division of Kangra, the biggest district in the state.

For the first time since young civil servant Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended by the Uttar Pradesh Government for allegedly taking on the sand mining mafia, three central services - the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFS) - have come together and have sought the changes in the ru...

Kashmir's vast forest cover has virtually vanished - chopped down by smugglers, or cleared by land mafias in pursuit of the real estate goldmine that the Valley had become. The massive vandalisation is the collateral damage of a violent conflict.

Sonaullah Zargar, a 30-year-old forest activist, who was dedicated to protecting the Sukhnag Forests in Budgam, was found dead in the Valley. His body was found near a stream a week ago.Initially Zargar's death was passed off as an accident but now the police suspect the timber mafia as well as corrupt forest staff to be behind his death. The Block...

Based on information from a source, the Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) was nabbed on the outskirts of the city, while carrying a bribe amount of Rs 8 lakh on Sunday.ADG of police, R K Dutta, who is supervising investigations, said that a team of Lokayukta sleuths intercepted DCF Narayana Swamy between Kollegala and Bangalore, and seized Rs 8 la...