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 …
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.
A airport project is threatening the al of the rare pink dolphins that off Hong Kong's western coast. as Chek Lap Kok, a small island off imm that lies to Hong Kong's west, is Z" bulldozed to form a platform for r airport, environmentalists fear that etiging, reclamation, underwater wing …
European Laboratory for Particle Physics sees little chance of an agreement g hammered out soon for the financing of Europe's next generation particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHCJ (Down to Earth, September 30, 1994). CERN's 2 host countries, France and Switzerland, continue to stonewall efforts by Germany and the …
INDIAN is well within earshot of the worldwide call for environmetal consciousness. None can doubt its commitment to gest conservation. But here ties the catch. Seen from below, r" conservation measures have occluded the people from it green boardroom. The commoner has lost control over nst resources, and competition with …
Firms owned by the Indonesian government will have a 49 per cent stake in 2 forest concessions of Barito Pacific Timber, according to an agreement reached in September between the government and the timber giant. The government, in turn, will renew Barito's permits for logging. Indonesian officials are euphoric over …
MYANMAR'S minister of forestry Chit Swe has launched, with much fanfare, an ambitious project to artificially inseminate a 6,000-strong herd of elephants, which lift heavy logs in the teak forests of Myanmar. Swe has enlisted the help of Michael J Schmidt, chief research veterinarian of the Washington Park Zoo, in …
Rampant deforestation in Chittagong is worrying Bangladesh government authorities. According to the country's forest department, indiscriminate logging has rendered barren at least 1,620 ha of private forest land in the Chittagong district alone in the current year. Rapid urbanisation is the major factor behind the deforestation. Trees are being mowed …
FOR some time now, international funding agencies have been at pains to show that they are concerned about the environmental and social aspects of the policies they promote. Very often, such concern is expressed through velvet buzzwords used to cloak the sharp interventions they thrust upon the beneficiaries of their …
*The Yangtze, the 4th-largest river in the world, carries a substantial volume of silt. As the dam stores the flood waters, silt would accumulate and raise the riverbed, affecting navigation, power generation and, ultimately, the life of the dam. The raised water level will increase flooding of downstream areas like …
THE Vu Quang forest, a sweltering, extremely wet, slime-covered rocky terrain on the mountainous border between Laos and Vietnam, is proving to be a veritable zoo of animals unknown to science. After the discovery of the Vu Quang ox (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) last year (Down To Earth, August 31, 1993), biologists …
THE 1980s witnessed an unprecedented burst of writing on the forests of Amazonia. This book stands out in this motley crowd for its scholarly treatment of a subject that is voluminously documented, although frequently in partisan and impressionistic terms. When Schmink and Wood describe the residents of Sao Felix in …
ONE of the few bright spots in the recently-concluded stormy European Community (EC) summit in Corfu in Greece was the unanimous decision on the need to shut down, permanently and as quickly as possible, reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine. EC leaders decided to put their might …
1893: The British notify all Himalayan wastelands as protected forests, provoking violent reactions among the people of Kumaon and Garhwal, who lose their traditional rights over forests. 1911-17: Additional areas are appropriated as reserve forests and given to the forest department. Protestors set several hectares of forests on fire. 1931: …
1931 1976 1993 Draft Notification Control over van panchayat Revenue department (RD) given administrative and technical controls RD retains administrative control while forest department (FD) has technical advisory role Administrative and technical powers vested with RD Powers of van panchayat 1. Van panchayat (VPs) can fine offenders Rs 5 2. …
