The invitation was innocuous. The Confederation of Indian Industry (cii) -- the grouping of the large and most powerful industries -- was convening a meet on forests. The purpose, said the invitation (which reached us by chance), was to discuss how the country would achieve the national target of 33 per cent forest and tree cover by 2012. The minister for environment was the key speaker and the ministry of environment and forests was the co-organiser. The question was: what was industry's interest in planting trees? Why was the ministry associated with this meeting? What was being cooked in this broth?

The fact is that industry's interest in land (not just forests) dates back to the mid-1980s. The proposal is delicious because it is so simple. India has large tracts of lands without tree cover. These are lands classified as forests but lying degraded. The country needs to plant trees. But the government says it lacks funds. Industry says that it needs raw material from forests. It has the capital to pay for planting trees and the technology and managerial ability to do massive afforestation. If trees are planted, the poor will get jobs. This is a win-win option.

But we, who have been tracking the story for the past 20 years, know that the proposal has been on the table for years. It has been pushed, each time with some changes in the detail of the scheme, each time with bigger and bigger players in the fray. The last was in early 2000, when Reliance Industries almost secured rights over forests of Andhra Pradesh. But still, each time the proposal has been rejected because it is understood that it will do nothing for poor people who depend on the forests and nothing even for the forests it aims to protect.

But if this is known, why the renewed interest? What does the newest look of the old proposal promise? What position does this government, with its common minimum programme, take on this idea, which has been the bugbear of tribal activists and environmentalists for many years? Nitin Sethi investigates history and current affairs to uncover the newest deal.

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Slums dumped out of sight

Forest commission fails to innovate

Arunachal turns to private Players for hydel power

India hardsells its troubled protected areas abroad

Regulating access to biodiversity and ensuring justice for its traditional knowledge holders

Elephant management in India just got tougher

Tribals fight for the right to write their way

Is this the moral of the NBSAP spat?

Will CITES become an endangered convention? Can it redefine its relevance?

A non-governmental organisation starts a post-graduate course on conservation

National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan

Nagpal Tea Stall, 29 Rajpur Road, Dehradun. Raju sips his tea, eyes glued to the television. Then his eyes light up as he hears talk of Bhutan. He strikes up a conversation with Nitin Sethi

To count the tiger

Protected areas fail as refuge

What ails the economies of the eight northeastern states? The warped fiscal policies of the Union government

Or, will they be mere transit points?

What is poverty? The Planning Commission is set to undertake an exercise to find a quantifiable answer to the question. It has proposed to the Union government to set up an expert group to redefine poverty and, consequently, reassess the percentage of India's population living below the poverty line. The last such revision was done in 1993

Land is central to the tribal identity in the region too easily abbreviated 'northeast'. Jeuti baruah knows this too well. As director of the Law research Centre, Guwahati, she is constantly discovering how friable these identities are in the face of constant change and integration into the 21st century. She is in charge of a huge project: her brief, as per the North East Council -- the nodal Union government body overseeing development in the region -- is nothing less than documenting the customary laws of the region's scheduled tribes, with a special focus on the land-holding system

Grassroots Options is about development or the lack of it in the northeast

...A lament for forest change at Sariska

How do pests select which plants to attack in the field? By smelling odours plants emit, believe most entomologists. But now an alternative theory has emerged of plant-pest relation. It isn't the odour. Rather, bugs are driven to plants by visual clues and, largely, leaf colour

Over the past few months, Rachel Biderman Furriela -- a Brazil-based lawyer and activist -- has been punching the keys of her laptop furiously. She is busy acknowledging congratulatory mails from her network of friends -- an international group of lawyers working on green laws

As field researchers will tell, you don't get up one fine morning and cut through an unknown forest in search of an elusive animal species. Even if you have a map to tell where the simian will be enjoying its afternoon siesta. You first look for what researchers call a field guide...

How can one conserve a wildlife sanctuary better? By flagrantly trespassing on one part of it. Then picking up the tab for planting trees on another in recompense. This is precisely the logic underlying a petition filed by Essar Oil Limited in the Supreme Court

April 2003 saw two diverse regions in India take a similar decision. Both partially opened the door to tourism in hitherto protected belts. One is a high altitude state; the other - a union territory -- is an archipelago of 348 islands. Just like their disparate terrains, their ecotourism roadmaps are also poles apart. While Uttaranchal has allowed trekkers limited access to the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands' proposal envisages leasing out certain areas to hotel chains. As they embark on their respective plans, tourism is bound to play an increasing role in the economies and, equally importantly, the ecology of the two regions

The provisional figures for India's forest cover are now ready, and Down To Earth has managed to acquire a copy. The figures, when compared to earlier ones, show an overall increase of 236, 800 hectares of forest. But is that really so?

Battles Over Nature: Science and the Politics of Conservation Editors: Mahesh Rangarajan and Vasant Saberwal Publisher: Permanent Black Delhi Rs 695 411 pages

In overhauling the wildlife act, MEF could ride roughshod over people's rights

Two proposed moves that could drastically alter forest management in India

MP government mulls proposal to facilitate hunting of crop-eating wild animals

An academy that aims at converting tribals to anthropology; where the Bhils crossover from being mere objects of study to an active role in studying themselves

Measuring efficiency of electric appliances fails to take off in India

A NORTHEAST TAPESTRY: SIX DOCUMENTARIES ON THE NORTHEAST BY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS. Produced by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). India International Centre, New Delhi. July 3-4, 2002

US unveils safety net for its farmers, shackling global free trade and posing a threat to environment

Villagers in Pench National Park sent packing

Indian refinery ready to become a zero effluent discharge plant

The Indian detergent industry refuses to clean up its act

Villagers around Tawa reservoir in Madhya Pradesh are finally allowed to retain fishing rights