10 villages to get forest benefits

Maharashtra to finally give JFM villages their due, but the share is bigger, say activists

10 Maharashtra villages to finally get Rs 74.5 lakh as benefits under joint forest management scheme

Detailed accounts of revenue earned from each village forest should be made public, says activist 

Seeking Solutions

POLICY THAT WORKS FOR FORESTS AND PEOPLE·James Mayers and Stephen Bass·International Institute for Environment and development (IIED)…

IFR review: Madhya Pradesh’s Van Mitra portal a tool to re-reject forest right claims, RTI data shows

Official machinery rejects claims without the knowledge of the Gram Sabha or the Forest Rights Committee

How a restoration project in Karnataka is helping revive ecology, community livelihood

Restoration projects can set in motion a virtuous cycle of livelihoods, biodiversity and native knowledge 

FRA helps Dhenkanal tribals gain land rights

Their ancestors were brought in as workers nearly a century ago by the former princely state

An open letter to forest denizens to avoid being roadkill

The hapless leopard, imprudent tiger, unreasonable tortoise, witless pangolin, incautious deer and the irrational elephant should just stop …

In a first, Odisha studies potential forest land under FRA

New estimate offers ‘baseline for planning and effective implementation of forest rights Act recognition’ 

Bone of contention

Neither Project Tiger nor the eco-development project can end the conflicts between the forest officials and the villagers in Ranthambhore

People’s rights and status of forest in limbo for 53 years in Andhra Pradesh

The rights of the people were supposed to be settled under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act; but they were not, eventually

Centre to give Indian Forest Act a facelift

The environment ministry has started comprehensively amending the Act by “weeding out” and updating obsolete provisions

The relation between tanks and trees

For survival of the traditional water management structures, one must understand the linkages between the tanks and trees

Time to act

The Madhya Pradesh government has recently sent a letter to the Prime Minister seeking changes in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The …

Forest states want money in lieu of felling

On August 1, 2003, Madhya Pradesh made a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a fund-generating mechanism for forest protection. Earlier, in June, …

Women in Odisha village take charge to fast track community forest rights

This isn’t the first time women have come together to not only protect forests, but also voice their demand for recognition of the Forest …

A window for forest people

NTFPS-EP is a network working with adivasis on ecosystem conservation, advocacy and livelihoods

Middle path of conservation

BOOK>> CONSERVATION AT THE CROSSROADS • by Ghazala Shahabuddin • Permanent Black • Rs 595

How can India overcome policy and institutional gaps in forest management

We need to recognise the Gram Sabha as empowered by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment 

At loggerheads

While the state government is keen to introduce JFM, villagers say there is no need for that since they have been carrying out all protection …

Message in a baton

The decades after Independence saw rampant destruction of trees. This was followed by years of drought. It was then that the villagers realised …

Forest rights and wrongs

MODERN FORESTS, STATEMAKING AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN COLONIAL EASTERN INDIA· K Sivaramakrishnan·Oxford University Press·…

Case for CFM

COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT — A CASEBOOK FROM INDIA·Joe Human and Manoj Pattanaik·Oxfam Publishing, Oxford·176pp·…

Centre ignores certifying agency

Private players set up forest certification body even as the ministry, which manages 90 per cent of the forests, gives it a cold shoulder

Spreading root

OLD ROOTS, NEW SHOOTS: A STUDY OF JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT IN ANDHRA PRADESH·C S Rangachari and S D Mukherji·Winrock International …

Crossroad

nitin sethi visits Arunachal Pradesh and finds the Apatani grappling with stereotypes and change