Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
You talk about a paradigm shift in tribal affairs. What do you mean? At the time of India's independence, tribal people in central India were seen as backward, superstitious, naive and poor. Even well meaning people concentrated on relief and improving their physical conditions. After 1947, the so-called mainstream had …
Chekkottu Kariyan (C K) Janu is an adivasi leader in Kerala. She is on bail after she was imprisoned for more than 40 days for leading an agitation demanding tribal rights over the Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary in Wayanad district in Kerala (See: The truth about Muthanga). C K Janu …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your area? I would say education, poor living standards, the need for sound water management, and improvement in the communications infrastructure. There is a lot of discontentment among tribals in Jharkhand against the forest department over the issue of unsettled claims …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Are they the same as they were 50 years ago? Tribals need development, like the rest of the country. I don't look at tribals with a separate perspective. We have been segregating them since independence. That's why they are …
You publicly demanded regularisation of land taken over by the tribals in Singhbhum. You made it a precondition for joining the Arjun Munda cabinet Yes. It is their land. They have their ancestors' tombstones to prove it. I have been demanding a resolution to this issue for a long time. …
Why are there so many disputes over forestland in the state? Why are tribals pitted against the forest department? Land is not an issue in tribal areas. The issue is development and exploitation of the region by the government of Bihar. There are no roads, water employment. Land is not …
What are the most important issues for the tribals in your area? Unemployment, migration and lack of development. You were part of the protest against the Koel-Karo project. Would you scrap the Koel-Karo project if you come to power? I did support the movement against the project. But I don't …
You have spent a lifetime struggling for Jharkhand. How does the new state look to you? This is not the Jharkhand that we fought for. That included 22 districts including those in West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. What's your stand on the Koel-Karo project? I led the movement for …
When did you rise to political prominence? What were the issues that propelled you to the political stage? When the Karzan dam was built in 1979, 19 villages, including ours, were submerged. We were paid compensation. In my student days back in the early 1980s, I was with the Congress. …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Political empowerment, land alienation (by non-tribals, forest laws, dams, mining and militancy), education, poor standard of living and insurgency. Why are these issues crucial? Earlier, there was a safety in separation. The British administration didn't exist in Karbi-Anglong as …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Economic development, unemployment, agriculture, poor roads, irrigation, education and health and electricity. When did these issues become so important? There is not too much difference in the issues that were important earlier and the ones that are important today. …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? The question of maintaining tribal identity, government failure to understand tribal sentiment, land alienation, displacement and rights related to the forest. Why are these issues crucial today? Tribals don't need just the money. Even in the 21st century, half …
orissa's forest authorities and forest management groups are at loggerheads. The cause of the dispute: the state government's decision to constitute forest development agencies (fdas) in 27 forest divisions. fdas, created under the National Afforestation Programme for monitoring plantations, are headed by the state conservator of forests. The agencies are …
The us house of representatives has passed a controversial bill that will increase forest thinning on eight million hectares of federal lands. The step has been taken on the pretext of better management of federal lands to reduce the threat of wildfires. Critics argue this is a million-dollar giveaway to …
Sustainable forest management was underscroed as an important aspect of sustainable development at UNCED, Rio in 1992. Following, various international, regional and national processes developed sets of criteria and indicators to monitor and assess the progress towards sustainability of forest resources. Sustainable forest management in India is significant not only …
Under the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in south-western West Bengal, regenerating deciduous forests are being managed for the extraction of numerous plant products, both for commercial benefits and subsistence-level use, on a large scale. However, there has been little serious evaluation of the long-term biological sustainability of forest produce …
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 …
There is an increasing interest in community-based forest management as a potential approch for improving forest governance. India is among the few countries in the world where such an approach - called Joint Forest Management (JFM)-has not only been successfully introduced but also achieved large-scale implementation, covering 18% of all …
two recent developments augur well for the forest dwellers of Madhya Pradesh (mp). Firstly, under the joint forest management plan (jfm), forest protection committees in the villages will now receive all revenue collected from selling timber and bamboo. And secondly, the mp government has decided to deregulate the trade of …
