Organic goes online
India’s organic food exports have found a new strength—online traceability. Web-based TraceNet can trace an organic product right …
Paan loses flavour
Iconic paan no more appeals to farmers, traders and common people. They say the contagious spread of chewing tobacco, especially gutkha, is fast …
Predicting the future
A severe shortage of medicinal plants and herbs threatens ISM. Cultivation may be the only way out. But currently medicinal plants that are …
‘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.…
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 …
How government is subverting Forest Rights Act
Does this official data betray a conspiracy? Only 1.6 per cent of the 2.9 million claims approved under the Forest Rights Act recognise community …
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 …
What if not single-use plastics? Why not leaf cutlery?
Leaf plates and spoons could help in combating climate change and also bring adivasis out of poverty
Continued low expenditure in 'Minimum Support Price for Minor Forest Produce' scheme
The MSP for MFP scheme was launched in 2013-14, aimed at improving the financial condition of forest-dwelling communities living in the …
Lakhs out of lac
A village in Madhya Pradesh prospers by reverting to its traditional means of livelihood
Platter of joy
People in Mendha-Lekha village in Maharashtra fashion plates out of locally available leaves. avilash roul learns lessons in sustainable forest …
Bamboo can generate 516.33 million man days of work in India every year
With most of the global export market for bamboo products yet to be tapped and potential to generate 516.33 million man days of work every year, …
Fighting it out
Groups of tribal women in Orissa are fighting against authorities to improve their lot by consolidating the trade of minor forest produce
First time ever, communities' compensation demand for forest diversion finds approval
The communities in Maharashtra affected by diversion of forests due to a transmission project may get the compensation they have demanded
Despite having forest rights titles, two Kalahandi villages denied transit permit
The forest department has been misusing the transit permit, which is essential to sell kendu leaf, a lucrative Minor Forest Produce
GST breather for Sal plates, Sabai ropes
Tax on these two minor forest products, a source of livelihood for millions of tribals, has been reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent
India simply does not acknowledge forest drought
Severe dry spells in Indian forests have hit the livelihood of more than 100 million people
70% of ministry’s budget released, claims tribal affairs minister
Jual Oram claimed that about 16.78 lakh individual titles have been granted over an area of 55.43 lakh acres of forest land
Much to farmers' dismay, Centre slashes prices of non-timber forest products
Modi government’s attempt at rationalising prices of forest products is likely to hit Adivasi farmers the most
How development loses meaning
The abstract noun 'development' is firmly a part of the public relations language governments use today. But after a recent ordinance passed by …
Honey, they shrunk our livelihoods!
Honey collectors gamble with their lives to eke out a livelihood in the Sundarbans, but are forced to sell it to the forest department for a pittance
Similipal fire: Lives and livelihoods of Mankidia tribals in distress
The Mankidia tribe earn by collecting and selling siali fibre from Similipal forests; the fire has badly impacted their livelihood
Similipal forest fires put Odisha’s Lodha tribe in jeopardy
Already affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, the wildfires threaten to make collection of minor forest produce even more difficult
Odisha planning to scrap minimum support price for minor forest produce
Lack of profitability is one of the reasons cited for the proposal to do away with the scheme
Stop trade
Soligas harvested forest produce. For them, it was a sustainable business. Then, irrationally, government moved to