Reserved for no one

The rapidly changing demography of Jharkhand, a state carved out of Bihar in 2000, has given a disturbing twist to the panchayat elections held in the region after more than three decades. Perhaps for the first time in the country, there were no candidates even to file nominations in a large number of panchayat seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Tribes (ST). No nomination was filed for almost 2,000 posts in the first three rounds of the five-phased panchayat elections.

Let forests be mined: coal ministry

CHOOSING economic growth over protection of rich forests, the ministry of coal has written to the Cabinet secretary against demarcation of coal-bearing mines as “go” and “no-go” zones. In June, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) had set rich forests as out of bounds for mining. As a preliminary exercise, the environment and coal ministries identified 35 per cent area of nine coalfields as no-go zones.

Lac cultivation and extraction

For cultivating lac, two types of host trees are used, perennial trees and annual bushes. They are infested with lac insects and left undisturbed. Thousands of lac insects colonise branches of the trees and secrete the resinous pigment. After five to six months lac-bearing branches are cut, and broods are tied to new host trees. The harvested trees are left for one to two years so that they grow new branches.

Great depression of lac

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 expecting 2,500-3,000 tonnes, said Pawan Kumar Sarogi, chairperson of a panel on lac-based products in Shellac Export Promotion Council, a traders’ body in Kolkata set up by the commerce ministry to encourage lac export.

High-risk trade

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 source of income and the season for collecting them are August and September. “If crows ruin the cocoons, my income halves,” said Nag who earns around Rs 10,000 from about 5,000 cocoons he collects each season.

Mobilisation immobilised

Squeezed between the Naxalites and the police, NGOs abandon community mobilisation

From the blurbs

BACKWATERS OF DEVELOPMENT, SIX DEPRIVED STATES OF INDIA, edited by Shovan Ray, OUP, Rs 750

Letters

Change approach to Naxalism This is in response to the editorial ‘Bullets are not the answer to development’ (April 16-30, 2010). On my first job in Dumka (now in Jharkhand) in 1974, I was shocked to see the condition of the tribals. All the wealth in the area was in the hands of a few business families who were migrants.

State of conflict

Legal Grounds has come out at an opportune time.

Jharkhand ready for panchayat polls

The Supreme Court cleared the way for panchayat elections in Jharkhand. On January 12, it upheld the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or pesa, that reserves 100 per cent panchayat chairpersons’ posts in tribal areas for scheduled tribes.