The scenery, mostly taiga forest, can be monotonous, and there is a handful of worthy stops like the unreal Lake Baikal to break the trip - and to take a real shower.

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Next to the park is a stretch of peat-swamp forest, mostly degraded but rich in carbon.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

Investigations into the disappearances at Sariska by the CBI revealed that forest guards were mostly unarmed and had limited communication facilities.

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The final leg to the eastern beachside village of Happy Valley is a 6.6km (mostly downhill) stroll through open forest and sand dunes.

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The explosive recent growth in the cultivation of another oil seed, soyabean, has led to an onslaught on Brazil's dryland cerrado savannah, which is often disregarded as a forest, though it contains two-thirds as much carbon as the rainforest, mostly in its roots.

ECONOMIST: Seeing the wood