Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
THE Himachal Pradesh (HP) State Law Commissioni established in 1994, has finally habdid over the draft Himachal Pradesh Forest Act, 1995, amendments to the Lokayukta Act, 1983, and the Utilisation of Lands Act, 1972, to the HP government. The draft Forest Act, repealing the Indian Forest Act, 1927, has been …
What do red-knobbed hornbills of Indonesia have in common with the -rain forest of Sulawesi? A 16t, it seems. They help in maintaining and regenerating the rain forests of the region while depending upon it. "The hornbills are the farmers of the Sulawesi forest," says Margaret Kinnaird of the 'Wildlife …
IN A bid to save the last vestiges of Scandinavia's ancient forests, some of Britain's largest paper and timber consumers agreed in December last to exert pressure on Scandinavian timber suppliers. Environmental activists reached a consensus with several companies, including Sainsbury's and the BBC Magazines chain, on adoption of methods …
D Southgate and H L Clark pointed out that "the present conservation paradigm, was "an attempt to transplant national parks, a rich country institution, to an alien setting", and that 'traditionally, defined, a park is a natural area where no people ... live or work". Using the example of the …
TWO large-scale forest projects slated to begin this year, aim to focus on Laos' forest resources more extensively. The projects - the World Bank's (WB) Forest Management and Conservation Project (FOMACOP), and the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) industrial tree plantations - are being criticised for posing serious ecological and social …
Filmmakers and artists are known for voicing social concerns in their work. But there are few musicians or vocalists who are sensitive to social issues. Sting, now on his own - having bro- ken away from The Police - has decided to bring a progressive element in his music. His …
AFTER over a year of deliberations and public debate on the proposed draft forest bill of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF), the National Campaign for People's Resources (NCPR) - a joint forum of voluntary organisations - has proposed a set of amend- ments to the bill. This …
THE Swedes, known to have a scalpedearth policy for a long time, have now come up with a ecologically sound way of logging which is also profitable. Earlier, the woodcutters used to bare almost 300 ha of the vegetation completely. But the new 'ecological cuts' have brought it down to …
FIFTEEN years of tough struggle have today borne fruit ... rather, trees. This is a saga of forest regeneration through local initiative in Chharadan village of Midnapore district. And the hero of the saga is Madan Khatua, whose mantra through these years was to save the forests from avaricious fellers. …
A campaign to save the last surviving primary forest in Europe launched last September in Warsaw still continues. Biolowieza Forest, spread over an area of 1,500 sq km and lying in Poland and Belarus, is threatned by continued logging on the Polish side. This March, a citizen's committee called upon …
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil has decided that the state-owned oil company Petrobas has been pampered silly and needs to be disciplined. He proposes to do so by selling it off to private investors, arguing that till now the firm's only contribution has been to augment the state's federal …
Juniper forests in Pakistan are likely to get an added lease of life. The Pakistan Environment Protection Council (PEPC) has launched a Rs 15 million pilot project to protect the world's second largest juniper forest in the Ziarat valley of Balochistan. The major facets of the programme are proper techniques …
IN AN appeal to save the planet, law students of the Delhi-based Centre for Environmental Law enacted Vasundhra (Earth), at their convocation ceremony. The play, directed by Amitava Dasgupta, was a hit with the audience. A woman in AD 2225 travels back in time to find a tree for her …
The Bhairu Lok Abhyaranya Dakav in Bhanwta, near Sariska, Rajasthan, is a sanctuary with a difference. It is a sanctuary declared, protected and managed by the people. "We call it the sonchidi, since it is as precious as a sone ki chidiya (the golden bird)," says Kanhaiyalal Gujjar, a member …
Our syllabi (for training forest officials) still have manuals written during the Raj S K Mukherjee Acting director, Wildlife Institute, Dehradun Why do you still train foresters in horseriding and shooting, 5 decades after the British have left? Surely, that's teaching them to charge against us. Nanakram Gujjar, a villager …
MAKAR Sankranti, January 14, is an auspicious day for Hindus. In Rajasthan, it is the day of reconciliation. This year, a motley group of 15-odd people set out that day on a 15,000 km walkathon through 18 sanctuaries and national parks (NPs) spread over 5 states. Their moving force was …
IT'S a bit less than a conspiracy, a bit more than a fetish. Five international organisations have made forest conservation their overriding priority. The gigantic United Nations bureaucracy based in New York, Washington, Tokyo and Rome is breathing in carbon dioxide, breathing out oxygen. First came the International Tropical Timber …
A RICH forest supporting the survival of the local tribal populace, a city girl in empathy, forest contractors and a foreign company eyeing the woods, and a young, diligent forest officer... the setting for conflict is ideal in Sai Paranjpye's film Papeeha. The girl agitates for the tribals' right to …
One fine morning in 1990, forest officials informed tribals in Thakkarwari in the Pune district of Maharashtra that they had no right to plant trees in the forest they inhabited. The baffled tribals, of course, had no clue to the fact that the MEF had just issued guidelines for joint …
COLONIAL forest administration, which didn"t give a damn about the fecund land it was so easily reducing to cinders and stumps, lasted almost a century. The sad thing is that even after Independence, the imperial order of green decimation refused to come unstuck and is now almost pathologically entrenched in …
