Meaning of 'forest' set to change in India

  HEREINAFTER The Union ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has reached the first milestone of its ministerial excercise 'Defining Forest in Indian Context'. At a 2-day meeting held April 30-May 1, 2007, the Ashoka Trust

Private affairs

Public or private?

Once poachers now guards

A forest guard sets out on his nightly patrol in the Periyar Tiger Reserve (ptr) in Kerala's Idukki district with the most unlikely companion: a former smuggler of vayana, the bark of the cinnamon tree. The two appear to get along well especially that now both are on the same side of the law. After a while, the ex-poacher suddenly stops and motions to his senior colleague. They can hear the almost inaudible thud of an axe.

Super Market

• India has 16,000 recorded plant species. About 3,000 of these yield minor forest produce (MFP). • Nearly 500 million people living in and around forests in India depend on MFP for sustenance and as a supplement to their income

Phulmai's walk - a day in the life of a headloader

Logjam

Unquiet woods With the ban and without access to forest revenue, Northeast economy is in doldrums

community forest management THE NEPALESE EXPERIENCE

In 1993, the Nepal government decided to hand over certain forest areas to rural communities. Six years later, 8,559 such communities are managing 621,942 hectares of forest land in the country. They are bent on accomplishing what the government has not been able to do -- regenerate the fast-depleting forest cover. While government-protected forests go from bad to worse, those managed by communities are getting a new lease of life. Unfortunately, a recent government circular threatens to bring the story of Nepal's community forest management (CFM) to an abrupt end.

“Why can’t people be given right over timber?”

Ajit Banerjee The former district forest officer in Midnapore, West Bengal, initiated the first JFM experiment in Arabari in 1972. Excerpts from an interview:

A tale of two interpretations

The fresh cool forest breeze and the greenery appears to act as a magic wand on the residents of village Ghati. Middle-aged men and women who just a few minutes ago had been involved in hard-core legal talk suddenly speak like children. Forty-something Gyaneshwar Sahare, who had been pouring forth on the grizly details of hunger strikes and arrests, now frisks around like a kitten. “Look, how many new saplings are there! Look, how the forests revives itself! Why do we need plantations?” he sings rather than talks.

A model district?

Gadchiroli issued a record 691 CFR claims between August 2009 and June 2011. This is more than 85 per cent of the claims issued in the entire state, and 17.33 per cent of the claims issued in the country.