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India will study the harmful impact of mobile phone towers on birds and bees, with the environment ministry constituting a committee that is also tasked with formulating guidelines on their installation. The 10-member committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) director Asad Rahmani and it will submit its report in six months. The committee will suggest measures to address the problem. “The expert group will access the level of possible impact of growth of mobile towers in urban, sub-urban and forest areas on the population of birds and bees,” a statement from the ministry said.

Closely associated with the religion and culture of the country, the elephant would soon be declared a national heritage animal as a step up measure for its protection, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said today. "We will soon declare elephant as a national heritage animal as they have been part of our heritage since ages. We need to give same degree of importance to elephant as is given to tiger in order to protect the big animal," Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi, according to Hindustan Times. Last October, the government had declared the river dolphin as the "national aquatic animal" which represents the health of the rivers, particularly the Ganga.

None of the human killing tigers in the fields of Pilibhit will face death, the government has decided. Instead, they will be relocated deep into the forest having strong prey base, Hindustan Times has reported. Uttar Pradesh's forest department officials have identified a tigress with a cub in Kishanpur area and another tiger near Pilibhit believed to be behind slaughter of seven persons in the last one month. All the victims were killed when they ventured inside the forest area to collect wild vegetables, which proliferate during monsoon. Their partially eaten bodies were discovered after their family members reported them missing. Similar tiger-related human deaths have been reported from Ranthambore, Rajasthan and Tadoba reserve in Maharashtra.