Who makes poachers?

“Ranthambore is like a leper’s pock mark on this district,” says a senior citizen of Sawai Madhopur, the town near which this important national park is located. The comment sums up the disdain in which many Sawai Madhopur residents hold the park. It also puts into doubt the government’s nature conservation strategy.

Letters - January 31, 2012

Safe or unsafe?

Wealth of forests withheld

Some 40 years ago an experiment began in Arabari forest range of West Bengal that caught the fancy of the nation. The forest authorities roped in the people living in the area in regenerating degraded forests. In return they offered them a share in forest resources and revenue. It worked. Two decades later the Centre adopted the Arabari model to start the Joint Forest Management programme. The response was such that today it involves 25 million people.

Don’t just cash in on tigers

Eco-tourism, as the world understands it, means impact of tourism on wild habitats and wildlife is deliberately kept low. It also means that local conservation contexts are acknowledged and efforts are made to improve the economic lot of communities living around a sanctuary or national park. Eco-tourism must make tourists more aware of the need for, and challenges to, wildlife conservation. But all this requires that the people who run the show themselves are responsible; it precludes outright capitalism as motive for entering the tourism business.

Lobbying begins

Charles Devenish is an unhappy man. The Cabinet’s nod to Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Bill 2011 has made him so. Devenish is chairperson of Australian Indian Resources, an Australian mining exploration company in India. He is worried that once the bill is enacted, his 20 years of hard work in India will be laid open in public domain. Devenish voiced his concern at the stakeholders’ interface on MMDR Bill 2011 organised by the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) on behalf of the Ministry of Mines on November 15 in Bengaluru.

Staying legal, staying reasonable

“How many of you listen to music?” All 20 hands in the room went up. “How many of you share music?” Again, the 20 hands went up. “And how many of you know that sharing music is a violation of the copyright law?” All hands stayed up. “Then, why do you still do it?” Many reasons followed, topped by: “Music is like nature.

The secret garden

Worlds can change within minutes, or kilometres. It was the bumpy six-hour ride from Kolkata to a tiger reserve in the largest riverine delta in the world, that told me this. Hopping islands in the Sundarbans onboard Rs 1 ferry rides, on rickety cycle vans dancing on puddles, and walking on slippery brick ways, the arduous journey is not for the big cat though. I am to witness the beginning of a stupendous task: documentation of life in its myriad hues.

Cabinet dilutes new mining bill

‘Forest department is the encroacher’

Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act was enacted 15 years ago. Do you feel helpless because it has not yet been implemented? As the minister of panchayati raj, my first job is to remind people about the existence of PESA. If need arises I can go for further legislation to ensure that states comply with the provisions of PESA. For this, I will talk to chief ministers and ministers in charge of panchayati raj activities. Interviewee:  V Kishore Chand...

Letters

Divide and rule forests