there was a post in hindu, couple of days back, regarding the japanese bank (japanese bank of industrial cooperation - jbic) being happy about the rate of afforestation happening in tamilnadu.

i dont know whether there are good studies on the huge tons of money being poured into afforestation in tamilnadu.

in karnataka, cised, had published extensive studies on the work done by jbic and most of them have come out very negative and they also had launched a campaign against jbic mode of funding and how funding works.

looks like jbic is having a whale of time in afforetation jaunts in india.

the above are some pictures of nilgris, which has been rampaged by cultivation, tea planataion and settlments. it seems only 2% of nilgris (of several thousands square kilometers) is still having native forests species of western ghats.