Timber Smuggling

Affidavit filed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam on feral horses in Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (DSNP), 08/05/2025

Affidavit filed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam in the matter of news item titled "the last feral horses in India" appearing in Mongabay, November 5, 2024. The matter relates to the critically endangered status of feral horses in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park as well as of smuggling of these …

UN lifts 3 year ban on Liberian timber exports

The Liberian government has implemented new legislation on logging, after the un Security Council lifted its three-year-long ban on the country's timber exports in October 2006. The council had imposed the ban in July 2003, describing Liberia's logging industry as a threat to peace and security. The country's former president …

Illegal logging: law enforcement, livelihoods and the timber trade

Illegal logging is massively widespread - more than 50 per cent of all timber in some countries - and hugely damaging, yet how can it be tackled without causing poverty in local communities? Written by the world's foremost experts, this book examines the key issues including law and enforcement, supply …

In Court

liberian timber: Dutch timber merchant Guus van Kouwenhoven has been sentenced to eight years in prison for breaking a UN arms embargo on Liberia. The International Court Of Justice in Hague found him guilty of selling weapons to former Liberian president Charles Taylor in return for timber rights (see

Conflict Timber

This term was first coined in 2001 by a UN panel of experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998, timber there has helped fund a conflict that has killed around 4 million people. The volume of wood removed by rebel factions, …

Rs 0.50 per pole

The region called ‘the interior’

Too cut & dried

function graph() { var popurl="files/images/20050731/26-graph.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=300,scrollbars=yes") } Here is a piquant contradiction: forest-rich states in India are beginning to grumble about the natural wealth they possess, and are protecting. In his speech to the 12 th Finance Commission (fc), Virbhadra Singh, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh

Peace isn`t elusive

Tourism...handicrafts...agriculture...forests... lakes - Jammu & Kashmir's (j&k;) basis of survival for ages. They still constitute 98 per cent of the state's economy and sustain 90 per cent of its population. Kashmir's economy is nothing but a sensitive and organised use of its ecology. After 15 years of living under the …

WATER: Fading glories

status: Most of the major lakes are dying potential: Just three lakes provide economic sustenance for close to 500 villages strategy: Revive these water bodies to generate livelihood Over a mile above sea level, around the Wular Lake, a few of India’s once richest villages are fighting a losing battle …

TOURISM & HANDICRAFTS: Backs to the wall

status: Almost no tourism; crafts trade only Rs 900 crore potential: Eco- and religious tourism can generate Rs 1,000 crore revenue, while handicrafts can turn in Rs 3,500 crore strategy: Revive confidence by reviving governance Some 1,400 empty, rotting houseboats ringing the Dal Lake provide mute testimony to tourism and …

The key: empowerment

As an economy, reviving Kashmir is not a difficult proposition. The new government, instead of exploring the more difficult option of sourcing resources from outside, has to look inwards. It has to bring about a basic change in the state's policy: from that of dependence to self-dependence. While the government

FORESTS: Losing its soul

status: Five per cent of the state's forests are degrading every year potential: Regeneration of the degraded forests can create 120 million humandays of employment strategy: Open up the forests to people and involve them in regeneration and management with benefits A 150-year-old deodar tree

Battle zone: Humans vs elephants

function openana1(){ var popurl="html/20030331_p28.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=610,height=460") } War zones Where battles rage in the evening By the time they killed it on June 25, 2002 the female elephant had killed 13 people over three days across the Indo-Nepal border. This much is known. The rest is a mix of half-truths, rumours, …

School kids turned smugglers

Timber smugglers in Orissa are catching them young. They have targeted schoolchildren from economically weaker sections to carry out their dubious activities. The Nayagarh district police recently caught two class viii students felling trees in the Sulia forest. The arrested students, Pandu Nayak and Dilip Nayak, admitted to killing wild …

1997 repeated

Yet another instance of the timber mafia encroaching upon the rights of tribal people has come to light. Close to 100 trees on private tribal land were cut down in November 2002 in Chhattisgarh's southern district of Dantewada. The landowner, who died about a month after the felling, was paid …

Poplar demand

trees are news in Himachal Pradesh (hp). While 200 people hauled the state government to court demanding a fair price for trees grown on their land, hp chief minister (cm) P K Dhumal sought compensation from the Union government for a

The battle over forests

Writ Petition number 202 of 1995; Godavarman v the Union of India and others. This is the ‘forest case’ being heard in Supreme Court for the past seven years. With more than 800 interlocutory applications (ias) filed, the case will dictate the fate of India’s forests and an estimated 10 …

Ex Chief Minister in the dock

People have for long been usurped of their rights over forests by industrialists, the timber mafia and corrupt officials. One such instance of misuse of power is the controversial khair wood allotment case in Himachal Pradesh (HP). Shimla Special Judge M D Sharma has issued summons to former HP chief …

After officialdom

I would love to write a handbook on the Indian bureaucracy. But for now let me focus on a favourite, the yes-minister technique. Do nothing, and then when pushed, unleash chaos. Nothing succeeds as much as failure. Every solution has a problem. Take the issue of encroachments in forests. The …

The forest mafia is very powerful`

How did you, a historian, get so deeply involved with deforestation issues? The history and culture of Uttaranchal is directly linked with its forests. I was working on the history of deforestation, and realised that the lucrative business of illegal timber trade is the single-largest cause of deforestation. Unless this …

Cops under cloud

it is a classic case of keepers turning marauders. The Supreme Court (sc) has issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh government over the alleged involvement of the state police in timber smuggling. The notice which was issued on September 26, 2002 was in response to an application by Damoh-based …

  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 12
  4. 13
  5. 14
  6. 15
  7. 16
  8. 17
  9. 18

IEP child categories loading...