Firefighters in southwest China contained a forest blaze on Tuesday after it claimed the lives of 27 firefighters and three others, local officials said.

Bangladesh police declared Thursday that rampant piracy in the Sundarbans was a thing of the past, crediting a gun buyback scheme for reducing crime and tiger poaching in the vast mangrove forest.

Each spring, the ground of the forest Hallerbos trades in its brown and green hues for vibrant blue, when a burst of bluebell flowers bloom.

The biggest man-made forest in the GCC countries is nearing completion in Qatar, some 50km from Doha, near Umm Salal Ali.

A Japanese boy abandoned in a dense forest by his parents for being naughty was found alive and unharmed on Friday, nearly a week after his disappearance set off a massive search that kept the nation riveted.

Searchers combed a forest in Japan for a missing seven-year-old boy with no clues about his fate as social media erupted in anger towards his parents who said they abandoned him by a road as punishment for being naughty.

A Nepali government survey has said that forests today take 44.74% of the total 141,718sq km area of the Himalayan country