The Union ministry of environment and forests wants media-savvy forest officers. Concerned at the "negative coverage" of forest, wildlife and environment-related issues, it organised a training programme for Indian Forest Service officers at Bhubaneswar in the second week of September. Thirty officers from 17 states underwent a five-day course at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, to learn the "art of interacting with the print and electronic media".

>> South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against the country service provider Telkom's "Do Broadband" television and Internet-based advertising campaign in which the agency promises consumers that they can do a variety of Internet activities using a one-gigabyte broadband package.

"We found the advert to be misleading as all the advertised activities cannot be achieved on the one gigabyte package," said an ASA spokesperson.

Vatavaran, India's only competitive environment and wildlife film festival, was held between September 12 and 16 in Delhi. Wild Dog Diaries by S Krupakar and Senani Hegde bagged the Best of the Festival award. Earth Calling Episode Coorg by Rita Banerjee and Shilpi Sharma won the Delhi chief minister's award for the best documentary in environment conservation, and Tiger: The Death Chronicles by Krishnendu Bose won the award in the wildlife conservation category.