Red Letter Day for bamboo On April 27, Maharashtra will rewrite history. On that day, bamboo, a hugely contested product of India’s forests, will attain its liberation and Mendha Lekha in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli Latest updates from Mendha Lekha April 26: In response to forest department's opposition to giving community rights …
In 2008, the village applied for the right over 18 sq km of village forest area under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 Read full story: Give us 18 sq km In 2009, Mendha Lekha alongwith Marda village became the first villages …
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The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has asked states to treat bamboo as a minor forest produce (MFP). Environment minister Jairam Ramesh directed the states to ask their forest departments to follow this categorisation in a letter dated March 21. He also asked the states to respect the rights …
Betel leaves were once dubbed green gold. But farmers do not find betel farming lucrative anymore. Besides low demand, it is the rising input cost, primarily for irrigation, that is discouraging betel farmers. Since it is a tropical plant, growing betel in the subtropic climate of India requires extra care …
The way paan is associated with India, a Chaurasia is associated with paan. But both the equations are changing, said Lalta Prasad Chaurasia, spitting blood red betel juice into an elegantly designed brass spittoon. The 58-year-old is among the last generation of Chaurasia farmers in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh …
Read this special report by Down To Earth on the iconic Paan losing its appeal. Its trade has dipped 40-50 per cent in the past decade, while consumption of chewing tobacco, especially gutkha, increased during the period. Farmers now prefer other crops. Iconic paan no more appeals to farmers, traders …
AN EXPERT committee, formed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, has recommended that trade control of tendu leaves, critical for forest dwellers’ income, should vest in the state. The panel, headed by agriculture economist T Haque, was set up to ensure ownership rights of forest dwellers over minor forest produce …
MENDHA Lekha village in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra staged a novel protest on February 15. It organised a bamboo sale in the village to highlight the forest department’s refusal to grant transit passes to transport bamboo out of the village for sale. Mendha Lekha was one of the first two …
THE Union government is reviewing its landmark initiative, the Forest Rights Act, four years after enacting it. The aim is to find how to strengthen the law which was legislated to ensure the traditional rights of 100 million forest dwelling people in the country. Two high-level groups submitted their assessment …
THE Maharashtra forest department has proposed including bamboo under minor forest produce (MFP). While the department touts the initiative as a step towards giving ownership of bamboo to gram sabhas under the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, forest rights activists say it is an attempt to dilute the …
The definition is contested as the answer has immense economic implications. If bamboo is a tree or timber, it belongs to the forest department and can be auctioned to the paper and pulp industry, often at throwaway rates. If it is a grass, then it would be classified as a …
Jharkhand has the reputation of being India’s biggest producer of lac, a scarlet-coloured resin secreted by an insect on trees. The state accounts for more than 50 per cent of the country’s lac produce. In 2004-05, Jharkhand produced 10,780 tonnes of lac. This season, from March to October, traders were …
Two tribal villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra—Mendha Lekha and Marda— savoured victory when they won community rights over their forest resources in August last year. The rights conferred under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 include the right to collect and sell minor forest produce (MFP). These include tendu …
Around July every year, Laxman Nag, a resident of Kolang village on the outskirts of Kanger National Park in Chhattisgarh, sees crows in his dreams. He sees the birds attacking silk cocoons to pick the larvae inside and wakes up in a sweat. Cocoons in the wild are his main …
Activists said forest dwellers get a raw deal in trade in nationalised MFP items. “Collection of forest produce is hard work. Women trudge through forests for long hours collecting mahua and lac and lug heavy loads, but have to sell their produce at a fraction of the market price,” said …
Can MFP help people break the cycle of poverty in the Naxal–affected districts? There are instances that offer hope. Subelal Markam, a Baiga tribal of Korka village in Madhya Pradesh used to get just Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 per bamboo piece from middlemen. In 2007, the forest department helped …
Wildlife conservation in India is facing monumental challenges. To withstand the onslaught of development and other threats, it is essential to understand how different wildlife conservation models have fared and what needs to be done. Gha zala Shahabuddin’s Con ser vation at the Crossroads does exactly that. Well researched, succinct …
This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala identifies the main constraints to the working of the legislation. Community rights and conservation provisions seem to be ignored. The paper also highlights the importance of integrating the implementation of the fra with …
Some recent studies on forest-based common pool resources have interpreted situations in which households choose to spend time on collection from the forest commons for sale and value addition as an income enhancing activity that is independent of the common's role as a safety net. Feb 23-29, 2008
