Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
Gandhian leader Chotubhai Nayak had dreamed that they would be the key to the tribals' prosperity, these jangal mandalis, or forest labour cooperatives. They have been a feature of the Dangs since 1948 and operated till 1960, when the Dangs district was a part of Bombay state. They were dissolved …
This forest is schizophrenic...it is a forest with 2 distinct personalities. One part of it is decked up -- like the drawing room of an impoverished lord -- exhibiting all that attracts applause, and funds, from international agencies. The other part is the dark, dingy and miserable home for the …
Forest ministers of the states and union territories of India jointly issued a declaration in Delhi on May 18 at the State Forest Minister's Conference, resolving to clear the backlog of compensatory afforestation by increasing the target for 1995-96 form 56,000 ha to 1 lakh ha. As such, the national …
THE book is an attempt to theorise the relationships between the many factors responsible for the degradation of forests. Although it does not deal with the latest developments in India in forestry - Joint Forest Management and the new, proposed Forest Act - it nevertheless provides a useful backdrop for …
THERE is a widely held view that migratory herdsmen, who are allowed to graze their stocks in the forested areas, are the prime cause of degradation. There is a constant clash between the forest department officials and the herdsmen. Bashir Khan Bakerwal is just such a herdsman. I met him …
THE verdant Nordic forests are proving a big moneyspinner for the region's large pulp and paper conglomerates, Almost all the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian producers, together accounting for more than 36 per cent of the paper production and consumption in the European Community, have reported a huge leap in profitsfor …
Bangladesh is in the grip of a crisis, us,farmers take to the streets, block roads, snatch fertiliser'tonsignments,and even set ablaze government offices and the residences of political leaders. They are irked at the recent steep hike in fertiliser prices: a 50 kg bag ofchemical fertiliser has doubled from US $5.75 …
SUCCOUR came from Rome. For the "pro-lifers" in the US -- as the members of the anti-abortion camp style themselves -- the 11th encyclical of Pope John Paul II, a 189-page pronunciation of papal wrath against abortion and euthanasia -- came at a moment when the battle for the fate …
VILLAGLRS reading satellite images like the back of their hands: it's an absurd oxymoron. But this virtual impossibility is precisely what the Bangalore-based Actionaid team discovered in Nepal recently. The team had started with an unlikely hypothesis: that the local people, with their intimate knowledge of the vicinity's topography, would …
All is well again with the lions in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. Their tribe is rapidly increasing, reassures Melody Roelk-Parker, veterinary officer of the Tanzanian national parks. Conservationists in the country were having sleepless nights as canine distemper virus cut a broad swathe last year through the lion population. In …
THE technocrats' promise to make every office paperless by the turn of the century doesn't seem to have made a dent in consumption: in the North, the per capita has shot up to an unsustainable 120-150 kg, and 0.2 to 30 kg in the Asia Pacific. Worse still, the Food …
Spain is facing the longest ever dry patch this century. The drought spells disaster for crops. Although the Agrarian Young Farmers Association pegs drought losses at us $2.34 billion, Greenpeace believes that the total cost to the Spanish economy was twice that figure for 1994 alone. The government responded by …
The Italian ministry of foreign affairs recently organised some culture and art events. Of the exhibitions put up in Delhi, the 2 most interesting were the wooden models by Leonardo da Vinci and Nobel laureate Gugliemo Marconi, inventor of the radio. Da Vinci's wooden model depicted his vision of innovative …
The resumption of commercial whaling is a longstanding Japanese demand. Even so, environmentalists were aghast when Japan's official Fisheries Agency announced its intention to sell whale meat at half its normal price. "The number of children who have never eaten whale meat is growing," blandly explained an agency official. To …
Letter to deputy forest protector, East Kutch forest department to the Kutch collector on matter pertaining allocation of land located at Mudra Taluka, Kutch District on rent to Adani Chemicals Ltd, for the production of salt.
To meet its objective of health for all by AD 2000, Bangladesh has decided to open its doors for importing pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging products and finished drugs. Medicines inadequately produced in the country can now be imported without any restrictions. However, curbs will remain on drugs manufactured on a large …
THE 50th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) has certainly not been an auspicious one. Since early this year, these agencies have been ' facing a lot of flak. Environmentalists have constantly accused them of flouting basic environmental norms, and going ahead …
A Bangladesh High Court order brought a doctors' strike to a grinding halt, In response to a writ petition filed by Mohiuddin Farooque, secretary general of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, a mandatory injunction was issued on October 4, directing the 2-week strike to be discontinued immediately. The doctors were …
IN THE early '80s, a tall, straggly alien invaded farmlands across North India. The landscape changed drastically as spindly eucalyptus shot out of what had originally been good agricultural land, redefining the objectives of farm forestry for the implementors of India's tree planting programme. The original purpose of the programme, …
Does rural fuelwood use and more generally rural biomass use cause forest degradation? This question has been debated in scientific and policy circles. The author presents a framework for defining degradation and sustainable use of forests that might help clarify some of the confusion.
