<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Abdul Kalam Vs State of Madhya Pradesh & Others dated 20/03/2024.</p> <p>The issue raised in the application is
In order to savour our natural heritage, it is high time to save it, but it is not for the Forest Departments of the states who are the custodians alone to handle this delicate business, especially due to the red tape and other pressures inherent in the govt set up and system of working where their hands are tied.
Harvesting a crop generates a huge amount of crop residue. Uttar Pradesh tops the list of the Crop Residue Producing States followed by Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and so on. A large part of this crop residue is burnt in the open fields since the farmers do not have any worthwhile use of this waste. Burning of residues give rise to emissions of aerosols, major gases and trace gases.
Raika herders in Rajasthan. They will benefit from the Forests Rights Act if their claims are accepted by gram sabhas along their migration route. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Rights (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, had already made an impact on the ground when it came into operation on January 1, 2008. There were reports that the State Forest Departments were rushing to carry out evictions from allegedly encroached lands before its provisions to stay all evictions came into force. Reports from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and other parts of India spoke of fresh clearing of forests at the instance of political parties, with the promise that these would be regularised under the Act. More quietly, communities and civil society organisations at some sites began preparations for implementing the Act in such a way that both forest protection and livelihood security could be enhanced. Now that the Act has been operationalised (with the notification of Rules), the question is: will it achieve what it sets out to do, and what will be the larger impact? The preambular text of the Act clearly lays out the context for its operative provisions. It is meant to undo historical injustices meted out to forest-dwelling populations in not recognising their rights to land and resources. But it also stresses that the rights of forest-dwelling communities include responsibility for the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. Will its implementation help achieve this rather difficult balance between livelihood security and ecological conservation, which has eluded most conservation or development programmes in India so far? In a sense, this Act is 60 years late. The Indian state should have granted forest-related rights to Adivasi and other forest-dwelling communities, whose survival and welfare was integrally connected to their natural surrounds, immediately after Independence. This did not happen, and over the last few decades such communities have been massively dispossessed and often rendered criminals in their own homelands. In Orissa, for instance, over 25,000 sq km of land has traditionally been under shifting cultivation; those lying above 10 degree slopes were unilaterally declared government lands, and much of these as forest land. Suddenly, the cultivators, many of them Adivasis, became "encroachers'. This should not, of course, hide the fact that significant forest loss has also taken place because of encroachment. The motivations for this are mixed, from desperate forest clearing by poor people with no other alternative to encroachment by oustees of "development' projects who received no rehabilitation to powerful vested interests forcibly occupying forest lands for various purposes. It should also not obscure the painful reality of forest-dwellers being alienated from their homelands by "development' projects or by powerful vested interests, instances of injustice that have hardly been addressed by the Indian state. Simultaneously, forests across the country have seen a horrendous onslaught from industrial and commercial interests and agricultural expansion. Over 4.5 million hectares of forest was officially diverted from 1952 to 1980. Slowed down by enactments such as the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) of 1980, the pace of forest diversion has once again increased in the past decade as the full force of globalisation and unbridled economic growth has made itself felt. Of the total 1.1 million ha of forests officially diverted since 1980, about a third has been only in the past five years. Responses to this devastation have mostly been in the form of laws and judgments resulting in stricter regulation of how forest lands are to be used. The most stringent have been protected areas (PAs) set up under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The nearly 5 per cent of India's territory covered by PAs has been invaluable in stemming the tide of wildlife destruction. But the manner in which PAs have been set up, ignoring the rights and needs of several million people dependent on their resources, has only created mass hostility and anguish. The tremendous traditional knowledge and practices, which were often strongly conservation-oriented, have also been ignored. This is an approach now rebounding on conservation itself, as these communities either simply refuse to cooperate with forest officials in stopping forest fires or reporting poachers, or actually become conduits in poaching and wood theft. The disappearance of tigers in Sariska is no surprise to anyone observing the brewing of a disastrous conservation recipe: ill-equipped and often unmotivated forest staff, hostile local villagers, and the absence of the political will to change things. The Forest Rights Act is a product of this history. Indeed, it is doubtful if it would ever have come into being if the people behind the Indian Forest Act, the FCA, and the Wildlife Protection Act integrated a livelihoods perspective into their vision. Had the interests and traditions of forest-dwellers been taken on board in the past few decades, the country would have had several million more supporters of conservation. A cauldron of impacts The debate on the Forest Rights Act has seen some incredible assertions about what it is going to result in. On the one side are a handful of conservationists (and prominent journalists) claiming that the Act will end up destroying all of India's forests and be the final nail in the coffin for the tiger. One sees a lot of rhetoric in their position, but little logic. On the other side are human rights advocates who wax eloquent about how the Act will revolutionise Adivasi existence and save India's forests from being destroyed by the industry-bureaucracy nexus. Again, more rhetorical heat than light. In the middle are a range of observers, cautiously supporting or questioning the Act, recognising that its impact is going to be extremely mixed. Already one sees evidence of this: ? In 2007, it was reported that 24,000 ha of forest was cleared in Gujarat, under political incitement, to claim it under the Act; ? In 2007, nearly 150 acres (1 acre = 0.4 ha) of forest was cut down inside the Kawal Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, by Adivasis from outside; ? In November 2007, more than 100 families were evicted from their villages in Nepanagar tehsil, Burhandpur district, Madhya Pradesh, with forest officials reportedly wanting to hurry up evictions before the Act came into force; ? Communities in Orissa are preparing to use the Act to claim control over forests they have been conserving, in particular to stop mines, industries or other destructive "development' projects that the government is allowing in these areas. In the ongoing case against the proposed mining by Vedanta Alumina Ltd in the Niyamgiri Hills, the Act's provisions protecting "Primitive Tribal Groups' have been cited since the hills are the abode of the Dongariya Khonds, a highly vulnerable Adivasi group; ? A number of conservation organisations are preparing to influence the process of declaring "critical wildlife habitats' under the Act so as to strengthen conservation greatly while also safeguarding bona fide livelihood interests; ? The Soliga Adivasi community in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka is being helped by the non-governmental organisation (NGOs) Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) to map resource uses, sacred groves and habitats considered by them to be critical for wildlife, and other aspects, and then invite the sanctuary authorities to prepare a consolidated plan for the implementation of the Act; ? Several States are beginning to identify "critical wildlife habitats' within their protected areas with the purpose of making them "inviolate' (which could mean a range of situations from no human use to only those human uses that are absolutely compatible with the conservation objectives of the area). Once notified, such areas would be totally off limits to any damaging industrial project (see box). The medley of positive and negative impact of the Act is partly a result of the structure of the Act and Rules, partly an outcome of the serious lack of readiness amongst the government and civil society to implement their provisions. Fresh encroachments in some States, if the reports above are valid, could be a result of the Act's provision that in the case of Adivasis, lands could be claimed for regularisation if "encroached' before December 2005. The original version of the Act had specified 1980. With a cut-off date that was many years behind, any fresh clearance of forests for encroachment could have been much easier to detect and pronounce illegal. Even now, satellite imagery could be used to detect any post-December 2005 encroachments, but this will be more difficult and the political pressure to regularise these would be much stronger. Another serious issue is the possibility of opening up forest lands that are currently safeguarded by the FCA. This would happen in two ways. One is forest lands under cultivation that would get regularised (and presumably converted into revenue land). These lands are not alienable in that forest-dwellers cannot sell them off; however, it is not clear if they would be eligible to be acquired by the State under the Land Acquisition Act and would no longer have to go through FCA procedures. In the worst-case scenario, this is one way in which the Act could become another tool in the hands of the State and industry to access lands for commercial activities. The second is forest lands that would be diverted for one or more of the development facilities (roads, health centres, transmission lines, and so on) that the Act provides as a right to villages, which are exempt from the purview of the FCA. These are within limits (for example, only one hectare per facility, with less than 75 trees per hectare), but subject to violations under political pressure. At least in some parts of India, these provisions could lead to the fragmentation of forests. However, this is not yet manifest on the ground, and civil society organisations can at least raise an alert if they see misuse of this kind taking place. A Soliga Adivasi hamlet in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka. NGOs are helping the Soligas to map resource uses, sacred groves and habitats considered by them to be critical for wildlife. There are likely to be severe problems in establishing genuine rights too. Even the definition of who is eligible is not clear; the Act says those "residing in and who depend on forests or forest lands for bona fide livelihood needs'. This leaves unclear what "residing in' means. Does it include villages that are immediately adjacent to forests, does it include villages that are surrounded by forests but are on revenue land? Also, do both conditions (residing in and dependent on) need to be fulfilled
As the phase of implementation of the law approaches, there is palpable unease among the tribal populations. At Pipalkhura, forest Department personnel destroyed tribal homes and took away their belongings. THE road to Pipalkhura is long, rocky and dusty. Across a parched, hilly landscape occasionally broken by a village, farm or bazaar, we make our way to this remote village in Madhya Pradesh. Suddenly, we see a cluster of white tents breaking out of the brown earth
Environmental clearance has more to do with regional environmental concerns than local impacts. This is clear from the rapid EIA report for the Shakti Bauxite mine. The assessment has to justify
In a bid to conserve the avian wild life, industrial, residential and commercial activities have been banned within 2- km area surrounding three sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh. The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by divisional commissioner (Ujjain) S.K. Vashishth under the directives of the Supreme Court and the Madhya Pradesh government yesterday. Official sources said such activities were prohibited around the division's Gandhi Sagar, Khiwani and Kharmour sanctuaries. Mandsaur district-based Gandhisagar sanctuary, spread over 368 sq km area, was a haven for myriad significant birds, including endangered species of vulture. Besides avian life, it also had murals, Takhaji temple and Hinglajgarh fort.
A bag full of surprises: Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji arrives at the Vidhan Sabha in Bhopal to present the State Budget on Wednesday. Finance Minister Raghavji on Wednesday presented in the State Assembly the Madhya Pradesh Budget for 2008-09 with a budgetary deficit of Rs.91.43 crore. The Minister announced a reduction in entry tax on raw material inputs for textile industry and removal of entry tax on sponge iron and iron scrap for induction furnace. He also announced a reduction in VAT on diesel from 26 per cent to 25 per cent. Mr. Raghavji went on to announce pension and medical facilities to those detained under the dreaded MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) during the infamous Emergency. Those who served six months or more behind bars would get Rs.6,000 per month as "Loknayak Jayaprakash Samman Nidhi' (monthly pension) while there would be a pension of Rs.3,000 for those jailed for more than three months but less than six months. One of the major budgetary announcements was that wheat would be available to each BPL family at the rate of Rs.3 per kg and rice at Rs.4.50 per kg . The budget for 2008-09 has a revenue surplus of Rs.2839.78 crore and the fiscal deficit for year is estimated at Rs.4741.00 crore, which is 3 per cent of the GSDP. The Finance Minister told media persons later that one of the important goals was to focus attention on gender budgeting to ensure equality for women, economic empowerment and women's participation in developmental schemes covered by 21 State departments. The Budget provides Rs.1371.47 crore for Energy, Rs.1656 crore for construction of roads and Rs.484 crore for road maintenance. The Finance Minister incorporated the Chief Minister's recent announcements at a Kisan Mahapanchayat here and told the House that there would be budgetary provision for a bonus of Rs.100 per quintal of wheat procured by government agencies for the public distribution system, reduction in rate of interest from 7 per cent to 5 per cent on short-term agriculture loans, relief in payment of old outstanding electricity bills, and increase in the rate of grant from 10 per cent to 30 per cent on drip/sprinkler irrigation. Mr. Raghavji said that additional irrigation capacity for 4.80 lakh hectare had been created in last four-year period and for the next fiscal, there would be a provision of Rs.1815.57 crore for irrigation purpose. He said colleges of excellence would be set up in each of the 38 backward districts. He also told the House that 254 girls' hostels would be constructed and 448 middle schools would be upgraded to the high school level. The Government would also be launching several scholarships for students belonging to the weaker sections, he added. The Finance Minister told the House that there was provision of Rs.566.88 crore (State share) for creation of employment in rural areas, Rs.100 crore for the District Poverty Initiative Programme Phase-II and Rs.93.23 crore for Rural Livelihood Project. He said the State employees would get dearness allowance and dearness relief at the rate of 4 per cent from this coming April 1 onward.
The country may harvest over 76 million tonne of wheat this season, if the current weather conditions remain favourable for the next three weeks, a top official said. "If weather conditions remain favourable, wheat production may touch the record level,' Union agriculture secretary PK Mishra told reporters. India recorded the highest production of 76.37 million tonne of wheat in 1999-2000. Mishra, said the weather conditions till the third week of March is very crucial for wheat, which requires a mean temperature of 20 degree Celsius. Except in Haryana, the mean temperature in most of the wheat growing states such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is normal for the crop, agriculture commissioner NB Sing said. The temperature at some places in Haryana had gone up to 29 degree Celsius for two days last week, which may impact the wheat crop, Singh added. Overall, the prospect of wheat output is very good, the agriculture secretary said. "We have been monitoring the temperature in the wheat growing areas. It is within the normal, prescribed for wheat crop, although the temperature has increased from what it was two weeks earlier.' "It will be not less than 3% when the final figures come,' Mishra said.
With 1.67 million cases of malaria and around 1,000 deaths last year, the government has changed the drug policy and directed states from January this year to introduce the ACT (artesunate and sulpha pyrimethamine) combination as the first line of anti-malarial drug treatment in chloroquine-resistant areas. Dr G S Sonal, Joint Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP), told The Indian Express that there has been concern over the increasing number of plasmodium falciparum (PF) cases of malaria. India contributes to 77 per cent cases of malaria in South East Asia. PF in the 70s amounted to less than 15 per cent of the malaria cases, but this has now gone up to 50 per cent of the total malaria cases. Moreover the dangerous PF has developed resistance to chloroquine in various parts of the country. Sixty-five per cent of cases of malaria in various pockets of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal are due to PF and drug resistance to chloroquine is high here. Chloroquine however is useful in states like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At least one million ACT course drugs will be supplied to the high endemic states. So far the government had supplied 20 crore tablets of chloroquine in the country. This quantum of drugs will be slightly reduced, Sonal said. According to Dr A P Dash, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), the PF species of malaria is spreading wider due to migration of population from endemic to non-endemic areas and drug sensitivity studies from various states have observed that there is resistance to the drug chloroquine - which is being used as the first line of treatment for malaria cases. The last time the policy was revised was in 2003. Vaccine for malaria Two sites have been selected for trial of a vaccine against malaria. Epidemiological and immunological data will be collected from the sites selected in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to test the vaccine. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi, has developed the vaccine and will be tested at these two sites, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research Dr A P Dash said.
The economy of Madhya Pradesh is largely natural resource driven, leveraging the state's advantage in agriculture and mineral resources. The key industries and sectors where Madhya Pradesh has competitive strength include cement, textiles, mining and food-processing. To give a fillip to industrial development in the State, the Madhya Pradesh government has decided to establish a SEZ in the industrially backward Hargarh village of Sihora tehsil, Jabalpur district, in Mahakaushal region of the State. The work on setting up the SEZ is on in full swing and the blueprint for it is ready. The SEZ will be formally inaugurated during the Investors' Meet to be held in Jabalpur. The Industries Department has proposed to build the SEZ on 623 acres of land in Hargarh. While 250 acres of the land is being dedicated to an SEZ on mineral and mineral-based products, a similar area of land has been earmarked for a SEZ dedicated to agro and food products. The rest of the land will be developed as an industrial area. The proposal for the mineral-based SEZ has already been sent to the Central government while the proposal for agro and food products SEZ is being prepared by the Industries Department. The mineral-based SEZ will have a budget of Rs 158.10 crore and will take three years to develop. The units that are likely to be a part of mineral-based SEZ are iron ore units, granite, marble processing units and fire clay units. A lot of work is being done in these fields in the Mahakaushal region. The preparations for the inauguration are in full swing. The empty fields of Hargarh are being cleaned up and the Pan Umaraiya road and a link road to the inauguration spot is being built rapidly. Work is also in progress on the National Highway between Sihora and Jabalpur. The inauguration will be done on February 15 with Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan taking part in the Bhoomi pujan ceremony. In fact, SEZ is one of the main focus areas of the two-day Investors' Meet in Jabalpur. The SEZ is likely to have a lot of positive spin-offs for the region. With the establishment of the SEZ, export companies will set up offices and complexes in Jabalpur creating opportunities for employment. Also, the air traffic to Jabalpur will get a fillip and, in turn, taxi and hotel services will gain from increased human traffic. The ancillary units and factories in Jabalpur and Katni regions will also gain from the SEZ, besides improvement in the industrial environment in Sihora region. Another major gain will be in terms of employment generation. Nearly 8,300 people will get employment in mineral-based SEZ. The SEZ will thus be a boon for skilled manpower in Jabalpur and for unskilled labour of Sihora and Hargarh, there will be work available. The state goernment has already developed a greenfield SEZ at Indore and its experience in that venture is certain to stand it in good stead in Jabalpur.
