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. …
Conservation policies to protect wildlife and biodiversity ignore the basic survival needs and imperatives of local people. This article aims to show how conservation policies trigger floods in protected areas, especially those located in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain ranges, leading to huge damage to plantations and habitats as …
Lok Sabha passes forest fund bill THE Lok Sabha on December 23 passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill without any amendment. The bill has been severely criticized by conservationists who say it institutionalizes diversion of forests to other land uses through a system of monetary compensation and does not protect …
Village commons might suffer if forest rights act is not implemented well in Himachal Pradesh The Himachal Pradesh government has asked forest dwellers in the state to put forward their claims to forest rights. But it is being cautious in implementing the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition …
Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Vidarbha's star tourist attraction, is buzzing with activity. Inside the 625.40 sq km reserve, excavators are hard at work, digging up earth for an ambitious road-building project. Strips of forest, several metres wide, have been cleared alongside existing roads. Outside, along the fringes of the reserve, …
G Rajasekaran | Salem THE Sheveroy South Range Office of the forest department on Thursday arrested six tribal youth who were allegedly carrying out repairs on the road within the reserve forest area. The roadwork under the National Rural Employement Guarantee Programme in the tribal village Gundur in Yercaud has …
DIBRUGARH, Nov 27: Despite news reports of forest dwellers cutting and burning down vast tracts of Dibru Saikhowa National Park, no one from the Forest Department has reportedly gone to investigate into the matter. According to local people, the villagers of Laika and Dodhia have been resorting to the slash …
What happens when it is discovered that two departments of the government, namely the Forest Department and the Revenue Department,have committed grave errors in discharging their duties, especially when the error has led to the denial of certain sonstitutional rights to lakhs of people? The Orange Area land dispute is …
Kanha national park falls in the Balaghat and Mandla districts of Madhya Pradesh. Located in the Maikal ranges of the Satpuras, the park is internationally renowned forits rich floral and faunal attributes. The national park has distinguished itself in saving the endangered hard ground barasingha from extinction and has the …
A bill to recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights …
on january 1, 2008, the government after much vacillation notified the rules of Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi- tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The day before, it had notified "critical tiger habitats' in 28 existing and eight proposed tiger reserves. It scored on both tiger conservation and …
New legislation in India allows communities to take charge of degraded forest areas. One village claimed to have legal rights over a particular forest area. But users from neighbouring villages protested. An external NGO helped the communities to accept each other as legitimate forest users. Jointly, the villages are rehabilitating …
V Narayana Murthi | ENS Vellore THE Vellore Forest Division has removed encroachment by farmers from around 450 acres of forest land from border villages in Gudiyattam and Odugathur ranges in the past three months, thanks to the support given by the Village Forest Councils and local bodies. Except in …
Tigers or tribals? Tribals versus tigers. This is how the discussion on the tribal forest rights act is being framed. The law, which was enacted by parliament a while ago, is aimed at conferring land rights on people who already live in forested regions. The government says it wants to …
Activists welcome the notification of the forest rights act, but say it has been diluted. Forest dwellers will require documentary evidence to claim rights, which most do not have, says Shankar Gopalakrishnan, activist with the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a federation of tribal and forest dwellers' organizations. "Also, the …
KOLLAM: Based on the Forest Rights Act approved by the Union Government, forest rights committees will be set up in the district on August 3. A meeting chaired by District Collector A.Shajahan has taken a decision in this regard. The Act envisages to provide rights on the dwelling places of …
