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. …
Forests officers writing about conservation issues is nothing unusual. However, rarely does a forest officer write ethnographical accounts. C K Karunakaran, former chief conservator of forests, Kerala, has done just that. Adivasikalude lokam vanavasikal seeks to correct some popular misconceptions about tribal people. The book analyses the lifestyles of 21 …
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 …
the impact of biomass extraction on the species diversity of a scrub forest has not been studied adequately in India. A study by the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore and the Council for Social Development in Delhi has done exactly this. The researchers say it's the first of its …
the forest department of Uttarakhand has started ascertaining the population of Van Gujjars in the Rajaji National Park. They started the exercise on July 18, 2007, after the four-week period given to the Van Gujjars for filing their representations to the forest department expired. The officials are now trying to …
there is debate over whether villages, within the Desert National Park in Rajasthan, should be relocated. Park officials stress on relocation, politicians are against it and scientists say while people are required, development should not affect ecology. To resolve the issue, a meeting of political leaders of the area was …
there is tension brewing in three villages in Maharashtra's Melghat Sanctuary over rehabilitation measures. The sanctuary, within the Melghat Tiger Reserve, is being freed of people to protect forests and to check declining tiger population. There is a debate over the rehabilitation package with ngos claiming it does not follow …
HEREINAFTER The Union ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has reached the first milestone of its ministerial excercise 'Defining Forest in Indian Context'. At a 2-day meeting held April 30-May 1, 2007, the Ashoka Trust AT STAKE At the April end workshop, the consultants put forward a draft definition: henceforth, …
In a significant contribution to a longstanding debate, the Anthropological Survey of India has come out with a study showing that four villages in the core zone of Orissa's Similipal Reserve cause very little ecological damage. The debate over relocating the four villages has raged on for over three decades …
the first-ever meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, held on November 28, 2006, has re-affirmed the Tiger Task Force's recommendations and laid emphasis on the involvement of local people in tiger conservation. It has sought more than Rs 100 crore from the 11th Five-Year Plan when Project Tiger got …
An act 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 …
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 …
as the Simlipal National Park in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district closes during monsoon to protect wildlife, it turns into a graveyard for its human inhabitants, reports an independent working group on protected areas. In June, an infant's death inside the sanctuary sparked off an investigation by this group of local ngos …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060615/7-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=540,height=250,scrollbars=yes") } the recommendations of the parliamentary joint committee (jpc) on the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005, tabled on May 23, 2006, is likely to stoke the debate on conservation vis-
The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005 has been prepared by the Ministry of Tribal Welfare, Government of India, "to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who have been residing in such forests for generations, but whose rights …
A forest guard sets out on his nightly patrol in the Periyar Tiger Reserve (ptr) in Kerala's Idukki district with the most unlikely companion: a former smuggler of vayana, the bark of the cinnamon tree. The two appear to get along well especially that now both are on the same …
Sariska’s ‘missing’ tigers have started off a flurry of activity and debate. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a Tiger Task Force; Rajasthan’s chief wildlife warden was suspended, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) has begun contemplating a Wildlife Crime Bureau. Justifiably, conservationists are up in arms; Sariska …
As the meeting began, I flipped open my notebook. I am very comfortable with battery waste, polluting factories, discarded keyboards and sewage. But here were a battery of experts deliberating on an issue
