Caution: pastures ahead

Village commons might suffer if forest rights act is not implemented well in Himachal Pradesh

Pay and chop

Lok Sabha passes forest fund bill THE Lok Sabha on December 23 passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill without any amendment. The bill has been severely criticized by conservationists who say it institutionalizes diversion of forests to other land uses through a system of monetary compensation and does not protect forests. The Parliamentary committee on environment, to which the bill was referred October last, also said the bill should be scrapped in its present form.

Living with lions

Creating history in a hurry

Flying in tigers to Sariska was not half as difficult as securing their future will be It was Sariska's best chance at redemption. It is more than three years since the Central Bureau of Investigation confirmed my expos in The Indian Express that the reserve had lost all its tigers to poaching. Between then and now, the authorities had all the time and opportunity to put the reserve in order before repopulating it with tigers from Ranthambhore.

What is FRA

Also called The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, FRA recognizes "the rights of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers, who have been residing in forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded". It aims at giving them "responsibility and authority for sustainable use, conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological balance ... strengthening the conservation regime ... while ensuring food security".

Reality check

Like neighbours

Ashutosh Mishra

Tadoba tiger reserve An unsafe haven

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Vidarbha's star tourist attraction, is buzzing with activity. Inside the 625.40 sq km reserve, excavators are hard at work, digging up earth for an ambitious road-building project. Strips of forest, several metres wide, have been cleared alongside existing roads. Outside, along the fringes of the reserve, entrepreneurs are busy building a cluster of guesthouses and resorts. State forest officials too, are hard

SC takes stock of Forest Rights Act

the supreme court on March 28 said it would examine the constitutional validity of the Forests Rights Act which provides right to land to scheduled tribes and traditional forest dwellers. The court issued notices to the union and the state governments on a petition challenging the validity of the act that the union government notified in January 2008.

Tiger trouble - balancing act gone awry

on january 1, 2008, the government after much vacillation notified the rules of Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi- tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The day before, it had notified "critical tiger habitats" in 28 existing and eight proposed tiger reserves. It scored on both tiger conservation and protection of tribal rights.