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 last time we had any rain was in 1997, not a drop since. God knows what's in store for us.' Ram Karan is the grand old man of Laporiya in the Jaipur district of drought ravaged Rajasthan and, coming from him, a statement like this means the situation is …
it's time for a shake-up in the forestry sector of India. Two major developments promise to alter the very character of forest management in the country. As a consequence, the lives of millions of people who depend on natural resources for their livelihood could also be transmogrified. One of the …
I remember how I first learnt about global warming. It was in the late 1980s. My colleague Anil Agarwal and I were searching for policies and practices to regenerate wasted common lands. We quickly learnt to look beyond trees, at ways to deepen democracy, so these commons - in India, …
Legally, Paras Nath doesn’t exist. At the age of 52 he is still clueless about where he hails from. Nath was barely five years old when he began toiling hard to grow sal trees in the forest. “Even my parents were not able to trace their antecedents, but they too …
The village Pokhlabeda in Patamda block near Jamshedpur is unlike most other villages in the tribal population-dominated districts of Singhbhum today. Fifteen years back, farmers here considered themselves fortunate if they harvested one healthy crop a year. Today, most farmers manage about three crops a year, and some households even …
Every bit counts. Taking note of this adage, Bangladesh has launched a people-oriented drive to encourage its 130 million citizens to plant one tree each year. The drive tries to speed up plans to put at least 20 per cent of the country under forests. While inaugurating the programme, the …
Saalumarada Thimakka, of Hulikal village (near Kadoor, Magadi taluk, Bangalore rural district), has discovered a novel way of dealing with her inability to have a child
Emperor Shahjahan should rest easy in his tomb. The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has given a nod to the second phase of afforestation around the marble wonder, estimated to cost Rs 15.90 crore. There are, however, conflicting reports on whether the first phase of the afforestation programme has actually brought …
to curb the menace caused by straying pachyderms, the Jharkhand government has floated a national tender inviting experts to formulate a plan to drive away elephants from areas inhabitated by humans. State forest minister Yamuna Singh said that the forests of Saranda, Porhat and Kolhan will be surrounded by electrified …
We need to give the devil his due. Finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, has drawn flak from almost all sides for his nightmare budget 2002. But there was one item, which missed most eyes, which said that the budget would provide deduction for afforestation projects on degraded non-forest land. The crucial …
Pune has been the centre of a quiet revolution. Heading this transformation is the Tree Authority of Pune (tap), part of the Pune Municipal Corporation's garden department. tap is responsible for keeping Pune city, with a population of over 26 lakh, lush and green. Maharashtra was the first, and until …
Acting on a petition, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Bokaro Thermal Power Station to identify the area where it can dispose of its slurry and fly-ash safely and make compensatory afforestation for the damage to the environment. Earlier, in the petition it was alleged that toxic waste from the …
An emergency fund to pay for forest protection is in the pipeline in China. According to the Chinese government, the first stage will involve a one-billion-yuan package supplied by the Finance Ministry for maintaining 13.3 million hectares of forests in 11 provinces this year. Logging has been banned in ecosensitive …
Initially involved in adult education and health activities, Jawan Lal took it as a challenge to transform degraded lands to productive assets in Barwa village for about 110 families. Jawan Lal says, "Even we realised the importance of water and afforestation early, but people were not ready to join and …
Concerned over the water level in the region of Suarashtra which had receeded from 15 metres in 1990 to 120-210 metres in 1998, Mansukh Bhai Suvagia, a 37-year-old government servant decided to initiate steps to tackle the problem. With the help of villagers, he launched a Lok Fund scheme and …
Manna Singh, a farmer by profession is the chairman of Sitapur project in Madhya Pradesh. Couple of years back, 46-year-old Singh was sent as a district representative to Anna Hazare for getting trained. In the year 1996, Union ministry of rural development supported the Sitapur project with a financial aid …
