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 …
Harmless pesticides can be prepared for home gardens from -recipes compiled by the International Institute ofRural Reconstruction in the Philippines: Tobacco: Place tobacco leaves, stems and dust in a container. Add boiling water and cover. After 3-4 hours, dilute with four parts of water and spray on plants. It kills …
There is mixed official opinion on the budgetary allocation for environment, which shows an increase of Rs 40 crore over the previous year's amount of Rs 329.81 crore. But, says Vinay Shankar, additional secretary, MEF, "The real increase this year is by about Rs 66 crore. We should take into …
A SOCIAL forestry scheme in Himachal Pradesh that for long was charged by environmentalists as a state-sponsored land-grab bid in the guise of afforestation has been suspended following the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party government. The van lagao rozi kamao yojana (grow-forests-and-earn-a-living scheme), implemented by the BJP, sought to …
THE GERMAN minister for environment, nature protection and reactor safety, Klaus Topfer, is among those who blame the West for a major role in polluting the earth. Or, so he was at pains to establish during a recent visit to India. "The industrialised countries must make a conscientous effort," he …
IT IS WIDELY believed that higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will stimulate plant growth and thus help crops and forests fix more carbon - a positive feedback effort that may partially help control the global warming problem. But two recent studies indicate'forests may not be as efficient in …
THE WILDLIFE Protection Act of 1972 made illegal the traditional occupation of the Irula tribals of Tamil Nadu. Consequently, the tribals who specialised in catching snakes, rats and termites and in collecting medicinal herbs, took up agricultural labour and road laying -- jobs that could not sustain them through the …
IRONICALLY, trees are now a security problem for the army. The armed forces are seeking urgent permission from the environment ministry for selective tree-felling in the thickly wooded areas under their control, for security reasons. They claim, while trees were earlier planted as camouflage, now the areas have started sticking …
TRIALS conducted in Pali, Rajasthan, indicate, that the ramkathi babul (Acacia nilolica, variety cupressiformis), indigenous to Andhra Pradesh arid Maharashtra, is an appropriate agroforestry species in and areas, according to a report in Indian Farming. (Vol 4 1 No. 11) The tree rp-sprouts when cut provides nutritious fodder and tough …
WHEN ARMIES march, they usually leave a trail of barren, brown desolation in their wake. But in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, former Indian army personnel are embarked on greening projects involving the most degraded tracts. Operating as units of the so-called Eco Task Force (ETF), …
PEOPLE who want to put their money in teakwood plantation schemes that look attractive on the surface should think twice, advises D N Tiwari, director general of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education. He also cautions investors against corporate plantations which promise to raise teakwood and yield high …
THREE YEARS after the National Wasteland Development Board (NWDB) launched the "Greening the Himalaya" project in the Jadhera panchayat of Himachal Pradesh, the balding hills of the panchayat are turning green once more. But this achievement is not so much due to the NWDB as because of the villagers of …
HELPED along with generous grants from the World Bank and Japan to green the Aravallis, plus its own sizeable forestry budget, the Rajasthan government has embarked on an ambitious compensatory reafforestation plan. District collectors have been asked to identify areas which can be set aside to form part of a …
THE PRIME Minister needs to be congratulated for his decision to set up a department exclusively in charge of wasteland afforestation. He shifted the charge from the ministry of forests and environment to the ministry of rural development, leaving several officials tongue-tied. If this step lends greater importance to the …
The minister of state for environment, Kamal Nath, had some radical words to say in Rio. "I don't understand why people here are talking about forests being national or global resources. In my country, they are more community resources," he told an interviewer. Surely, that statement will gladden the hearts …
PURI HAS an NGO with a difference. Residents of 1,200 villages in the district have got together to form the Brukshya O Jeevara Bandhu Parishad (BOJBP) to protect their environment and devised quaint methods for ecological regeneration. Seedlings are demanded as part of dowry and planting trees, instead of feeding …
SEABUCKTHORN, a multi-purpose shrub-tree, can improve the lives of millions of marginal farmers living in the Himalayan wastelands. The shrub-tree, found almost all over the Himalaya, has the potential to transform both the economy and the ecology of the region, say scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development …
CALL IT a guilty conscience or call it uncanny business sense. But Toyota, Japan's largest car manufacturer, is busy trying to produce a genetically-engineered tree which can absorb larger amounts of carbon dioxide than its more natural counterparts. The research programme first aims at identifying and cultivating existing tree species …
LOFTY afforestation goals come to grief on a very mundane issue: the survival of people in and around the project area. One such is a US $30 million reforestation programme in the Chopta region of the Himalaya, funded by the World Bank. The government blamed the villagers for the failure, …
FOR the first time possibly since independence, the forest cover in India has recorded an increase. The green cover has gone up from 19.47 per cent to 19.49 per cent, with an annual incremental growth of- 28,000 ha, says the latest issue of The State of Forest Report, prepared by …
THAT rural Indian women are the worst victims of environmental degradation is well-known. But what happens when women assert themselves? This is the story of the four-year-long struggle of the women of Muvasa village in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat who made degraded common land arable. To my mind, it …
