Affidavit on behalf of Union Territory of Puducherry in the matter of a news item titled "India lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000 Global Forest Watch" which appeared in the Indian Express, April 13, 2024. The report dated April 25, 2025 said that there is no loss …
Food gatherer and rope maker tribals in Jharkhand become cultivators Members of two primitive tribes in East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, are trying to retain their forestland in a unique manner. The sabars and birhors, food gatherers and rope makers, have taken to cultivation. They have cleared tracts of forestland on …
Tigers attack people. People impatient, they are second priority. What is the way out? July 24, 2007. Hungry and exhausted after fishing all day on the Bidyadhari river, Amirul Naiya, his two brothers and three other fishermen pulled up their country boat into a creek in the dense Sunderbans mangroves, …
Herbivores of the jungle are said to be the forester's friends, while the earthworm is said to be the farmer's friend. The friends of the forester include insects, birds, squirrel, rabbit, monkey, deer, gaur (Indian bison), bear and elephant, to name a few. It is known that herbivores play a …
India has history of programmes for conservation of soil and water resources by adopting in situ moisture conservation and increased irrigation through tank and aquifer based water harvesting. This article gives an indication of the potential of the watershed programme.
In your Editorial 'Two symbols, one solution' (Nature 453, 427; 2008) on symbols used to publicize the challenges of global warming, you caution against focusing on animals rather than people. But symbols can be powerful
The sarus crane, a bird species characteristic of wetlands, is categorized as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. In India, sarus cranes occur mostly outside protected areas and use these unprotected areas for feeding and breeding. They are consequently threatened by poaching and the destruction of their eggs and juveniles. …
This article investigates social, political and cultural aspects of sea turtle management led by the Tobian community at Helen Reef in the Republic of Palau. We use participant observation, unstructured interviews and examination of community -based natural resource management literature to compare and contrast the Tobian community with several other …
Solid waste management and good governance are two sides of the same coin. This point was made clear by the British scholar Sir David Wilson who said that the state of solid waste management in a city is perhaps the best indicator of the state of urban governance. Or to …
The local extinction of the tiger (Panthera tigris) from the Sariska National Park (NP) in India triggered a series of reactions, actions and policy prescriptions. The Tiger Task Force of the Government of India considered this to be a failure of the state machinery in controlling poaching. The Government of …
Decentralization is broadly defined as transfer of power to the lower level of government (PRIs). It mainly takes three forms, namely political, administrative and fiscal. The legitimacy of the centralized system of governance is on a decline because of various factors including lower participation by people, lack of accountability, weak …
Indigenous institutions have positive capabilities in natural resource management which have to be considered along with the negative aspects of tradition and prejudice. A context specific assessment of the powers to be given to such institutions must therefore be done.
Environment impact assessment was supposed to be a critical tool in environmental decision-making. But it has been re-engineered to severely reduce its usefulness as an instrument for public participation in decision-making. This article, written against the backdrop of proposals for a new coastal regulation zone notification, analyses the different characteristics …
ACORD, is working actively on creating awareness and participation among the people of Delhi on the extremely high pollution of the river Yamuna, so that they can get motivated to take the right actions towards the goal of cleaning the river and sustaining its cleanliness. This base-line study is one …
With the growing potentialities and respect of traditional knowledge for sustainable forest management, community-based forest management (CBFM) has been advocated in the mainstream discussion of forest management and sustaining livelihood of local communities. Forest certification has emerged as an experimental system for new for-est governance beyond the state and mechanisms …
Embracing the opportunities provided by democratization and decentralization, the Wonosobo district of Central Java, Indonesia, enacted a local regulation for participa-tory forestry. The regulation emphasized rights-based political participation and as such entailed significant participation by civil society groups. However, this regulation faced a backlash from the remaining representatives of the …
Who are the beneficiaries from participative approaches in conservation - the people or the wildlife. The authors compare two protected areas Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in Peru and Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and show how in similar institutional settings local interest groups react very differently to the possibility of participation. …
A two-and-a-half-year long fight has resulted in victory for Chhattisgarh villagers. The Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (iffco) withdrew its proposal of setting up a coal-based power plant in Chandan Nagar in Sarguja district in March. "The gram sabha was firm and the result is before us. The pesa act …
The introduction of payments for environmental services (PES) offers an opportunity for traditional and indigenous populations to be compensated for contributing to carbon sequestration in meeting the challenge of ameliorating global warming. As one mechanism among several for promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, pro-poor PES initiatives could eventually be …
