Up for scrutiny

Environment ministry sets up certification scheme for its forests

Finally, community forest rights

Tribals of BR Hills can now manage resources in Karnataka reserve

Forest department’s cheat act

Omits crucial community rights from claim papers of Gadchiroli villages  

Letters

Wildlife NGO group gets flak for seeking curbs on forest rights of indigenous people

Application moved in Supreme Court by three wildlife NGOs seeks to reverse rights granted under Forest Rights Act, allege tribal rights activists …

New rules to make FRA effective

Tribal affairs ministry's draft rules under Forest Rights Act give more authority to the community in the process of settling forest rights

FRA guidelines to help forest dwellers freely trade in minor forest produce

Tribals and forest dwellers don’t need to obtain transit passes to cart away the produce; minimum support price scheme for MFPs to be in …

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

Age of dissent

Six villages in Madhya Pradesh reject Centre’s proposal to declare their forest a wildlife sanctuary

Super Market

Secretive. Exploitative. Is the market in Minor Forest Produce unmanageable? sopan joshi finds out

‘Forest department is the encroacher’

When V Kishore Chandra Deo became the Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Tribal Affairs three months ago, both the ministries were in inertia.…

Concern over the government’s moves to dilute the requirement for Gram Sabha consent in violation of the Forest Right’s Act (FRA)

Gadchiroli villages oppose forest department’s tree-felling activities

People say forest management is their right in CFR villages

Don’t take away Gram Sabha’s powers under FRA: activists petition Modi

‘Central government's attempts to do away with consent of Gram Sabhas for diverting forests unconstitutional’

Ministers mount pressure to dilute Forest Rights Act

Tribal affairs minister asked to withdraw objections to Maharashtra’s Village Forest Rules that allow forest department take control over …

Baigas cheated of community forest rights

Madhya Pradesh village given rights over agricultural and residential land instead of forestland

Class room

How bamboo was liberated

Struck at the root

Livelihood of 2,000 families is threatened as the Maharashtra forest department tries to ban extraction of lotus roots

Wealth of forests withheld

Forest departments across the country owe millions of rupees to communities. For 20 years communities toiled under the Joint Forest Management …

Two Andhra villages get bamboo rights

The gram panchayat can earn up to Rs 1 crore a year, says Jairam Ramesh

Tricks of diminishing returns

Clever calculations and the great wall of bureaucracy

Freeing bamboo from the state

A recent notification making bamboo a minor forest produce can only be the first step

Don’t say bamboo

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

Bamboo under siege

Gadchiroli villages relinquish forest rights to Ballarpur paper mill