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 people of the Uttar Pradesh hills have always strongly opposed attempts to snatch their traditional rights. Today, they are asserting themselves once again. At various seminars and meetings organised recently, van panchayat members have consistently voiced their aversion to impositions by officials and have instead lobbied for greater autonomy. …
IN THE tranquil village of Kunya Khali in Uttar Pradesh"s Almora district, sarpanch Sunder Singh patiently waits for the monsoon. The village is one of many in Almora, Nainital, Pithoragarh and Chamoli areas that has nurtured a panchayati forest. Unknown to Sunder Singh, however, the monsoon may be accompanied by …
In a complete reversal of its stand, the union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has cleared the 73.5 mw Pooyamkutty hydroelectric project in Idukki district in Kerala, endangering about 2,870 ha of state forest and the traditional way of life of thousands of mat and basket weavers. Although, the …
AMIDST the opulence of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) annual meeting, the representative of at least one government -- a large, poor country in South Asia -- was discovered staying in a hotel room that cost over $1,000 a night. The big prize, more than anything else, was Power. The …
A FIERCE battle, albeit verbal, has broken out in the US between scientists and native Indians. The bone of contention is the remains of ancient Indians dating back to 800 BC, that lie in the Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland. The Indians want the bones of their ancestors back, so …
FORESTS have always been the object of cornucopian myth-making. Their very location, usually on the margins of settled agriculture reinforced this identity. Nancy Peluso takes us into a realm where ambivalent Western cultural constructs came into contact with their non-Western counterparts in a colonial framework of power relations. The myth …
PAPUA New Guinea is all set to launch its "Save the Forests" campaign in a big way. Forests minister Tim Neville said that he is determined to phase out all log exports by the year 2000, in order to achieve sustainable forestry. "We have allowed a gross imbalance whereby the …
THE Chinese need no longer tot up on English to operate Microsoft Corp's famous user-friendly Windows programme. The Beijing Stone Group Co has developed Chinese-language software that can be used with this programme, which also includes wordprocessing. Tentatively named Mate for Windows, or Win-Mate, the software will retail for about …
The people dependent for sustenance on Delhi's largest green belt, "the Ridge", are trapped in the power-grabbing crossfire between the Delhi Administration and various other agencies. The Delhi Administration's environment and forest department has decided to convert the Ridge into a reserved forest and has locked horns with the Delhi …
A PROPOSED forest conservation programme in Thailand has met with fierce resistance from non-governmental organisations, academicians and forestry officials who feel the project may dislocate forest dwellers. The $93-million Conservation Forest Area Protection, Management and Development Project is to be funded partly by a Global Environment Facility grant of $20 …
THIS book provides a good overall perspective on the world's forests and the political economy of forest management. Authors with broad experience in many fields present diverse views on key forestry issues and the solutions needed to accelerate the transition to sustainable use of forest resources. The book argues that …
THE CHINESE government has been forced to take some drastic measures to assuage the country's long-suffering farmers, who are moving to the cities in droves in search of more money. For one, it has forbidden the construction of new golf courses and horse-racing tracks -- symbols of a "decadent" Western …
FINLAND'S forestry and paper industries have attracted world attention but for all the wrong reasons. The country is ravaging its ancient forests with mechanical tree harvesters, according to an article in the German news weekly, Der Spiegel. These accusations have been rejected vehemently by Finland's forestry industry as an example …
IN THE early 1980s, the people of Sukhomajri village in Shivalik range of the Himalaya in Haryana's Ambala district earned nation-wide acclaim for the way in which they had utilised their forests and water to their benefit. But even they would never have imagined that the 400 ha forest of …
STUDIES suggest that countries can reduce birth rates significantly, without waiting for development to make an impact, by promoting modern contraceptive methods. Birth rates are falling in countries too poor for development to have stabilised population growth. Between 1970 and 1991, fertility rates declined from 7 to 5.5 children per …
FIVE YEARS ago, the social forestry department in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra cleared several trees from a forest near Nandivse village to plant acacia trees. It did not know that the 4-ha patch was a sacred grove surrounding the temple of a powerful local deity, Kal Bhairon. The villagers, too, …
IT SEEMS hard to believe, but the noiseless sport of paragliding can lead to avalanches and landslides. Swiss researchers found paragliders scare mountain goats into the forests downhill. The hungry goats can do a lot of damage to these forests, the main protection against avalanches and landslides in many areas, …
Sacred groves are the embodiment of a multitude of human impulses, energies, relations and creeds. But, lack of holistic perspective leads to a dangerous reduction of this wide spectrum to a one-dimensional rationalisation. From there, it is only a short step to theological, legal and technological definitions, leading to appropriation …
• Investors have been flocking to timber-based businesses in Malaysia, where timber related stocks are being traded at high prices. This is a result of a combination of strong timber prices and a comparative scarcity of timber-related listings on the Kuala Lumpur stock market. • Japanese electronics firms are looking …
INDONESIA will start putting ecolabels on tropical timber from sustainable sources from 1995, in order to comply with the International Timber Trade Organisation's (ITTO) policy on ecolabelling. However, the decision has spawned doubts about enforcement and fears of a negative impact on the country's timber industry. The ITTO policy maintains …
