Mendha Lekha gets record bamboo rate

Earns 2.5 times more than what the highest rate received by the forest department last year

Among the non-believers

A forester’s  perspective on green governance

Bamboo freed

Maharashtra village India’s first to win right to harvest bamboo. Eyes now on other forest produce

Bamboo still a distant dream

No village in Maharashtra other than Mendha Lekha has been able to access bamboo

Another Maharashtra village demands community forest rights

Tribal village Pachgaon to follow Mendha Lekha; to hold bamboo sale as protest to gain community forest rights

Mendha Lekha residents gift all their farms to gram sabha

Village does away with private ownership of land, saying it will lead to a stronger community.

Maharashtra forest department gets flak for its August 15 diktat

Department has asked gram sabhas to pass resolution on Independence Day, accepting forest village status, which will mean relinquishing rights …

Maharashtra forest department gets flak for its August 15 diktat

Department has asked gram sabhas to pass resolution on Independence Day, accepting forest village status, which will mean relinquishing rights …

Forest department’s cheat act

Omits crucial community rights from claim papers of Gadchiroli villages  

A tale of two interpretations

Aparna Pallavi recounts struggles of residents of a tiny village in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra to get ownership of forest resources

Don’t say bamboo

Aparna Pallavi travels to Gadchiroli district to find out why villages relinquished forest rights

Another village, this time in Odisha, gets official permit to sell bamboo

Though Jamguda was conferred community forest right two years ago, it was not allowed to cart bamboo out or sell it in the market

A journey called change

Their struggle for survival and progress has shaped the understanding of environmentalism both at the national and global levels and influenced …

Bamboo under siege

Gadchiroli villages relinquish forest rights to Ballarpur paper mill

Half-way to autonomy

Decisions by Maharashtra’s top forest official can empower gram sabhas prepare plans to revive their forests, but a policy is awaited

Bamboo rising

Five years after it was implemented, the Forest Rights Act finally takes root. Communities across the country rush to claim rights over forests …