Affidavit filed by Chhattisgarh East West Railway Limited in the matter of Sudiep Shrivastava Vs Union of India & Others dated 15/04/2025. The appeal was disposed of by the NGT, April 29, 2019. However, the order was challenged before the Supreme Court (SC). The SC, November 26, 2024 disposed of …
The mainstream paradigm of understanding grass-root environmentalism in India as “environmentalism of the poor” might be challenged by an alternative prototype forest movement in the Bengal Dooars prior to the Chipko movement. It was fought against the exploitative design of ecosystem governance under the taungya method of artificial regeneration as …
The state government will provide modern fire-fighting equipment for combating forest fires to staff deployed in sensitive beats prone to fires. Stating this while presiding over a meeting of senior forest officials here today to review preparedness of the department to deal with forest fires, Forest Minister JP Nadda said …
Like State governments in many other parts of India, the government of Jharkhand State is planning large-scale industrial expansion across the entire region in the name of development and poverty reduction. To the dismay and disillusionment of mass movements in Jharkhand, newly elected government officials plan to uphold agreements struck …
box story headlineGlobal warming and sea level rise On December 13, 2006, scientists warned that the Arctic ice is melting at a rate faster than was estimated. The ice has been shrinking steadily over the past 30 years, but now scientists say there's a possibility of an ice-free Arctic in …
In Kerala, approval for diverting 7,693 hectares (ha) of degraded forestland to resettle landless tribals came after a forest advisory committee enquiry. The land diverted was
This issue of Down To Earth examines a crisis forest-rich states in India find themselves in: conserving forests is a burden states are no longer able - or willing - to afford. This has happened because in India, as concern for natural resources grew, the harvesting of forests stopped. For …
• Jhum (shifting) cultivators conserve forests and make it productive at the same time. Said researcher Drupad Choudhury of the G B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, " Jhumia s nurse and nurture forests back into their jhum fields, while conventional farmers banish the forest from their fields'. …
The 13, 295 sq km Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, about 52 per cent of its forest land, are hot spots for jhum practice. Land degradation in the area has, as in India, very often been blamed on it. But Golam Rasul, environment scientist from Bangaldesh, set the record straight …
My initiation into environmental advocacy began in the mid-1980s. My colleague Anil Agarwal was involved in a fight against the Karnataka government's proposal to give forest land to Harihar Polyfibres - the Birla-owned pulp mill based in the state - to grow its raw material. The matter was in the …
"My idea of village swaraj is that it is a complete republic... The government of the village will be conducted by a panchayat of five persons annually elected by the adult villagers... this panchayat will be the legislature, judiciary and executive combined... Here there is perfect democracy based on individual …
Where the spacious black topped 20-km long road ends, India ceases and the republic of Nimalapedu starts. Life takes a different meaning altogether: "Here people rule,' says Sambhu Pollana, the head of the village's gram sabha. The 200 residents are busy harvesting their first crop of paddy in June, unmindful …
Horomocho is just another sleepy village in the district of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. There is nothing much that looks very striking in this village of 52 Santhal households. Mud walled houses, mohua and kusum trees, kacchha streets, people lazing around after work
When a few merchants from the north went down to the south, one of the princes of the Deccan asked the question: "Who is your king?' The answer was, "Some of us are governed by assemblies, some of us by kings.'
Some 200 villages in Rajasthan were following Vinoba Bhave's advice, till 1995 when a politically motivated government amended the Rajasthan Gram Dan Act 1971. Inspired by the Bhoodan movement of Vinoba Bhave, the act establishes village republics and gives executive and legal powers to the village gram sabha. "This is …
Balwant Rai Mehta, 103, is on a time wrap. A veteran freedom fighter and member of first parliament, he was tasked in 1959 to suggest ways to reach the fruits of development to the last person in the village. He suggested three-tier panchayat system with all powers to the gram …
"I wish, therefore, that the village constitutions may never be disturbed and I dread everything that has a tendency to break them up.' Report, Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832 There is an urgent message emerging from all these villages: deregulate the behemoth called the Indian government. The …
After Switzerland, Madhya Pradesh (MP) is the second place in the world where electorates can recall an elected representative. Recently, the president of the Anuppur municipality in Sahdol district, Palavika Patel, was recalled from her office. Sixty three per cent of the total electorate voted against Patel. This was the …
Which village is this? "Dongripara Gaon Ganrajya (Dongripara village republic),' is the innocent reply of 10-year-old Gopal Nag of Dongripara, anxiously waiting for October 18. It is his Gaon Ganrajya Diwas (village republic day). Much before he learnt the alphabets and knew about India's Independence Day, Dongripara declared self-rule on …
