Uttarakhand’s tulip garden offers glimpse into state’s largest germplasm collection

The garden is minor part of state’s largest germplasm collection of rare, endemic vegetation, put together by Uttarakhand forest dept in …

COVID-19: Gujarat forest dept officials allegedly torched huts, fields

The state’s forest officials told villagers to evict land or face consequences

कैग ने पकड़ी राजस्थान के वन एवं पर्यावरण विभाग की खामियां

वन्यजीव एवं पर्यावरण संबंधी अपराधों में राजस्थान का नंबर दूसरा है, बावजूद इसके सरकार गंभीर नहीं है

Go-ahead for Vedanta’s Jharkhand steel plant despite forest encroachment

MoEF&CC regularised 174 hectares encroached forest land in Bokaro in December 2019, after spate of opposition from state forest dept

Native tree species are climate resilient, maintain ecological balance

Introducing exotic species and promoting monoculture plantations in forest areas, village common lands have caused disastrous impacts on the …

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (July 19, 2019)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

UP forest dept cites stayed SC order for eviction

Although activists and forest dwellers could resist this attempt, the notice that came a day after still didn’t have any mention of the stay

'Progressive' Maharashtra governor must step in to save tribal land, rights

Communities expect Ch Vidyasagar Rao to stop massive diversion of their lands to sundry government projects

Premise of SC ruling on forest dwellers wrong: UN Special Rapporteur

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, says tribals are treated like squatters all around the world

Chhattisgarh forest department expense avoidable: CAG

The department’s actions caused an excess expenditure of Rs 2.03 crore in the year 2014-15, says auditor

Jharkhand govt doesn’t have legal rights over 38% of its forest

The state forest department has not issued final notifications to convert 7.33 lakh hectares of forest land, rendering this land legally …

Amended Tamil Nadu forest Act must be cautiously exercised

While forests under private ownership have already been destroyed with cash crops, if the provisions of the Act are further relaxed the state&…

Odisha loses 24th elephant in 8 years on railway tracks

While forest department wants speed checks, railways seek better coordination

‘It may be too late to contain virus outbreak killing Gir lions’

An American researcher, who worked on mitigating the canine distemper outbreak in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park in 1994, talks to Down …

Some forest questions

The State of Forest Report 2017 does provide important nuggets of insights into what is happening today

MoEF&CC increases compensation for crop damages and loss of life by wild animals

The compensation amount in case of loss of life by a wild animal has been increased from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh

Only 16 per cent of potential community forest rights granted in Kerala

Of the 779 community claims, including CFR, passed by the gram sabha, only 328 have been cleared by the District Level Committee, shows a report …

Six villages in Odisha can now sell tendu leaves

These villages were earlier denied their right to sell this minor forest produce to any other buyer apart from the state's forest department

God’s own country or elephants’ graveyard?

A host of reasons ranging from poaching to intake of plastic, poisonous articles and electrocution have been attributed to deaths

The story of a principled chief conservator of forests in Bastar, Chhattisgarh

While the forest department has been busy working forests for timber, a single man in Bastar holds hope for the many villages that have lost …

New sand mining guidelines call for robust monitoring and sustainable development

The guidelines try to create a balance between preserving ecologically sensitive river habitats and the need for infrastructure

Maharashtra lost over 1,500 sq km forests in 30 years

Reason: development projects and encroachments

Wildfires are burning holes in our pockets

The cost of fighting wildfires this year is predicted to go over budget by hundreds of millions of dollars

Forest fires now more frequent across the globe

Given strong relationship between climate and fire, these fires are expected to occur more frequently, says US climate assessment report

Most forest fires this year were in and around national parks, sanctuaries

About seven to eight incidents of big forest fires have been reported from across the country; fire that broke out on Nagaland’s Mount Japfu,…