Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
The JFM programme faces existential crisis. On the one hand, pieces of legislation like the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, and the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, have come into existence, giving rights to tribals and forest dwellers over forest resources and their management. On the other …
This response to the comment “Protecting India’s Protected Areas” by Praveen Bhargav and Shekar Dattatri (23 April 2011) points out the authors’ misreading of the Forest Rights Act and also of the report of the Joint Committee on the FRA.
THE past two rainy seasons 65-year-old Ramdas Rana has spent much of his sleeping hours adjusting his bed to an elusive dry patch. The thatched roof of his hut has been leaking since 2008. He could not repair it because the grass used for thatching is out of bounds for …
PEOPLE on the fringes of Kaziranga National Park are anxious. They fear eviction. On January 9, the Assam gover nment issued eviction notices to 10 families in the Kohora range of the park. Others in 16 villages, marked for park extension, fear it could be their turn next. Residents of …
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has withdrawn its latest guidelines for creating inviolate space for wildlife. The guidelines for creating Critical wildlife Habitat (CWH), issued on February 7, violated the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and threatened the interests of the forest dwellers (see: ‘Misguided rules’). The ministry also asked …
Top forest officials and members of the National Forest Rights Act Committee are on a collision course after the panel submitted its report to the government and stated that the Act was not implemented in its true spirit. A war of words ensued after the panel, formed by the environment …
The Union government is reviewing its landmark initiative, the Forest Rights Act, four years after enacting it and two high-level groups submitted their assessment in the first week of January. But the environment ministry is in no mood to accept Forest Rights Act review finds out Down To Earth. The …
Each tribal family will get up to 10 acres of land Revenue Minister to hand over documents to families in Kannampady settlement 128 tribal settlements in Idukki district KATTAPPANA: Minister for Revenue K.P. Rajendran will on Thursday hand over land documents, under the Forest Rights Act 2006, to 306 Adivasi …
This report by National Committee on Forest Rights Act (FRA) submitted by N C Saxena to Shri Kantilal Bhuria, Union Minister of tribal affairs says that with notable exceptions, the implementation of FRA has been poor & includes recommendations for implementing it effectively. The Ministry of Environment and Forests and …
Indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh are managing forests around their homesteads in a sustainable way despite exclusion of customary rights on government managed reserved forests,. Bangladesh, as one of the forest poor countries in the world, is continuously struggling to conserve its forest resources. However, …
This paper considers the relationship between the emergence and development of state forestry institutions in forested landscapes of West Bengal and the chronic and acute poverty of citizens living there. At least 13% of West Bengal
THE forest departments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are forcibly evicting tribals from forestland. Around 50 huts of the Korku community in Madhya Pradesh were demolished on August 29. On July 30, forest guards assaulted tribals of the Kunbi community for cultivating in forestland in Dang district in Gujarat. The …
Community participation emerged as the defining principle of forest policies all over the world in the closing decades of the last century. In India, this came about after the Indian forest policies went through different stages from largely commercial-centric to a community-oriented approach. The access to forests and participation in …
Stage demonstration in front of Krishnagiri CollectorateCommunist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) stage a demonstration demanding the implementation of Forest Act in front of the Krishnagiri Collectorate on Monday.
The ministry of environment and forests has set up a Tiger Conservation Fund to benefit local communities living in the forest reserves. A fund of Rs 900 crores will be transferred yearly to states in which the 39 tiger reserves are located to be used for livelihood activities.
This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala identifies the main constraints to the working of the legislation. Community rights and conservation provisions seem to be ignored. The paper also highlights the importance of integrating the implementation of the fra with …
FOUR months pregnant Lalita Devi coiled herself to escape the blows of heavy sticks. She was bewildered why each blow was directed at her belly. Men in khaki were ruthless till she fell unconscious. After five hours she found herself outside the Kone police station. “I was lying in a …
Though 390 families leading their lives in Kudremukh National Park limits are ready to vacate their land and leave, they allege that Government has not yet come up with any alternative facilities to rehabilitate them. A plantation within Kudremukh National Park. Photo/Ravi KelangadiThe organisations fighting for justice say that the …
