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 invention of a device in the uk has raised the hopes of regenerating degraded lands by promoting growth of trees. The invention could prove to be a boon as about one-fourth of the world's land is degraded drylands and nearly one-fifth of the world's population is facing the constantly …
National Report on the Implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (CCD)
The Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has embarked on a national forestry programme to increase forest cover in the country by 33 per cent. The project, which has a budget of US $32 billion, will be funded by 28 international donor agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme …
Concern for the country's deforestation and resulting damage to the ecosystem is becoming a major issue in China, reports the China Daily. The government and the people are considering it important to improve the forest ecosystem and increase forest cover from the present 13.9 per cent to 19.4 per cent …
"if you look at the figures of the Van Mahotsav (forest festivals), you will find that millions of trees have been planted. But their survival rate has always been under question," says Prem Kumar Dhumal, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. He talks in similar vein about the crores of rupees …
Born in Yamnang, a sleepy little in Sikkim's west, Chamling got involved in rehabilitation of landless people after completing school. "In fact, I donated some of my own land to settle landless people" he says, recalling his days as an activist. Transition from social work to politics came naturally, more …
ADMIRERS He may not be sophisticated enough to view environmental problems like a trained activist, but he understands them in his own way. His solutions may sometimes look roughshod but his willingness to learn is his greatest asset. What more can one expect from someone who took over after 14 …
RAWAN KUMAR CHAMUNG Do you think environmental issues are important?, No development process can exclude environmental manage- ment. I grew up amidst natural beauty. So when I see it being degraded in the name of development, I feel very disturbed. In southwest Sikkim, thereffias been large-scale deforestation. Streams are now …
Seventy-year-old Aitamai has lived in Sichey Basti on the outskirts of Gangtok for over 40 years now. "But I have never seen such a bad landslide," she says, referring to the one that devastated her house in 1996. Aitamai remembers with horror the day the otherwise-calm jhoras (rapids) that criss-cross …
An ambitious reforestation plan has been unveiled in China. All logging in non-commercial woodlands will be banned soon. State forestry bureau director Wang Zhibao said the plan would focus on reforestation along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. "Forests will be re-classified into public-interest and commercial zones," he said. Commercial logging …
A ban on logging will be imposed in the Jinsha river basin in the Yunnan province of China. The authorities have planned to launch a reforestation drive to check floods in the future. Massive floods have wrecked havoc in China in the past few months. Earlier, a similar ban on …
A PROJECT to develop green patches in the city of Ahmedabad has run into problems. The ambitious urban forestry programme, mooted by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), was started a year ago. Environmentalists say that lack of initiative by the voluntary agencies involved as well as municipal authorities is the …
in a bid to increase forest cover and provide employment to landless farmers, the Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-operative ( iffdc ), has put forward a proposal to the Global Environment Facility for undertaking co-operative farming for afforestation. Under the project, thousands of hectares of wasteland given to co-operative societies …
this is an amazing story. A story that shows that India can start eradicating poverty very fast and very cheaply. This is the story of the degradation and the regeneration of Jhabua - a poor tribal district of Madhya Pradesh bordering Gujarat. In 1985, when I first visited the district, …
the ecological carnage that Jhabua has witnessed in the last five decades is sporadically mentioned in official records. Elder residents, however, remember how the dense forests once enveloped the district. "Hardly 60 years ago, my home was surrounded by dense forests," says 90-year-old Dholji of Samoi village. "The forests belonged …
the pebbles in the fields have become potatoes in the Hathipawa microshed of Jhabua district. In Phoolgaodi village, the villagers are celebrating the Year as the year of the Grass. In 40 ha of degraded government land, the watershed mission took up pasture development, where the production of more than …
When he was the irrigation minister in Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh realised that big dams would only bring him unwanted unpopularity and fail to solve the problems of the largely tribal people of his state. "I realised that big dams were not going to help achieve sustainable growth," he said …
The marriage of Joint Forest Management (JFM) with watershed treatment under one mission was the touchstone for recovery of Jhabua. Even before the guidelines for watershed management were issued by the ministry of rural development, Government of India, in late 1995, the mission had commenced with the formation of 20 …
the tribals have gone to war. The quest: regeneration of the environment. The location Jhabua, an upland in western Madhya Pradesh (mp) with an area of 6,782 sq km and a forest cover of 624 sq km. Almost 80 per cent of this forest is severely degraded or has suffered …
concerns that burning of fossil fuels could increase levels of co 2 in the atmosphere leading to climate change has caused wrangling among the world's politicians, scientists and environmentalists for years. But it has seldom been regarded as a business opportunity. Now, three enterprises in the uk are promoting "carbon …
