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 …
Soil and water conservation measures are meant to reduce soil erosion and utilize rainwater. The measures include construction of contour bunds, contour trenches, graded terraces, check dams, dugout ponds, open wells, and similar other works. Some of the works done by the agencies of the Madhya Pradesh Govt. are analyzed …
A NATIONAL environment policy is on the anvil. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has drafted a version and placed it in the public domain for all to review in two months. But the draft has made the civil society sulk. Their grouse: MoEF has become insular. It's …
faced with the threat of exposure to toxic waste, the people of a few nondescript villages of Tamil Nadu (tn) exhibited remarkable unity and resolve to register their protest. They were ably supported in this endeavour by civil society representatives. It was as if a storm hit the Kancheepuram collectorate …
Madhya Pradesh started its Joint Forest Management (jfm) programme in the early 1990s. Its stated intentions were quite noble: village-level institutions were to be involved in forest management; elaborate benefit sharing mechanisms were outlined; non-governmental organisations (ngos) were identified to provide an interface between forest departments and village communities. These …
The government of India has for long considered watersheds as catalysts for development activities in rain-fed areas. In 1994, it developed guidelines for implementation of watershed programmes. These were subsequently revised, in 2001, by the department of land resources of the ministry of rural development and circulated as guidelines for …
pharmaceutical giants ought to work closely with scientists in developing nations to ensure that these countries also benefit from the exploitation of their natural resources; such an approach is even crucial to ensure local communities' participation in the conservation process. These are the conclusions drawn by researchers from Panama-based International …
Over the last decade, governments around the world pursued policies to involve the private sector in the delivery and financing of infrastructure services. The scale of this move away from the hitherto dominant public sector model was far more rapid than had been anticipated at the start of the 1990s. …
Concepts of environmental conservation and management are directly linked to the practice of development. Development has been seen as not only an instrument to increase production, but also to remove poverty. But anti-poverty schemes in India have not been sustainable and are conditioned by the kind of finance available for …
The involvement of local communities in protecting and conserving forests has become a priority concern with aid agencies, governmental departments, NGO's and others concerned with biodiversity conservation, to the extent that participatory forest conservation has become a buzzword in conservation circles. This article documents the fourteen-year process of organising a …
The National Forest Policy (NFP) of 1988 marked a watershed in the way forests were perceived by the State Forest Departments. Recognising the serious limitations of the exclusivist approach towards forest conservation that had been followed since independence, the NFP paved the way for bringing in more participatory means of …
The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), formulated from 2000 to 2003, was envisaged as a comprehensive action plan for conserving biodiversity in India, that would adequately reflect the aspirations of the hitherto marginalised peoples who have a direct stake in biodiversity conservation.
Even as citypeople all over India were finalising their Christmas party-hopping plans, a celebration of a very different kind galvanised Junagadh district, Gujarat. From December 23 to 26, 2002, thousands of villagers from villages in Keshod, Maliya, Memdarda and Mangrol talukas went on a padayatra (footmarch). Their mission? Sensitising and …
optimism is a great friend but a bad guide. The Asian Social Forum (asf) meeting in Hyderabad, India, deliberately avoided this truism while proclaiming grandly: "Another world is possible". Another world is definitely possible. In fact it exists. The numerous communities that gathered there, with their own stories of survival …
In 1985, the Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources (mnes) introduced improved chulhas (fuelwood-based cooking stoves) to primarily conserve forests, reduce pressure on rural women who collect fuelwood and to protect their health against indoor air pollution. Called the National Programme on Improved Chulhas (npic), it formed a part of …
this was a public hearing with a difference. For, the people succeeded in preventing the establishment of a clinker grinding and cement packing plant in Kerala. The experts panel unanimously recommended at the October 24 meeting that environmental clearance should not be granted for the plant. The unit was to …
TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE FOR MANAGING BIOSPHERE RESERVES IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . Edited by PS Ramakrishnan, RK Rai, RPS Katwal and S Mehndiratta . Oxford & IBH Publishing Co Pvt Ltd . 2002 For three decades, Biosphere Reserves (BRs) have helped build the knowledge, skills and attitude …
PILE OF PERIL: Toxic waste from piles of unused pesticides in Africa is threatening people's health and the environment. Despite several clean-up measures by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), less than five per cent of the stockpiles have been disposed till now. IN PROTEST: From October 5 to …
