A Bill proposing radical changes to India's forest law came closer to becoming legislation on July 26, when it was passed in the lower house of Parliament with barely any…
The onset of summer months means a bumper harvest of cashews in the Nayagarh district of Odisha. A cash crop, cashew is highly profitable for farmers, but this was not…
The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 29th March, to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (FCA). It was sent to the Joint Committee…
Women from the Tharu tribal community, living in 46 villages of Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh, are the forefront of the fight to their community’s right to the forest.…
“Adani company go back,” residents of Jharkhand’s Gondalpura declared in a public hearing organised on July 15, 2022, by the Hazaribagh District Collector’s office to discuss issues surrounding impending land…
Gujarat’s diverse geographical landscapes are home to several indigenous communities pursuing traditional occupations. The hilly terrain in the state’s eastern, northern and southern belts comprise significant tribal populations. The western…
At the first-ever global tiger summit, to save tigers from extinction, held at St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2010, 13 tiger range countries, including India took a resolution to double tiger…
This summer it will be thirty years since the Rio Earth Summit. Unlike the earlier decadal anniversaries, this year the United Nations is not celebrating an event to mark the…
Thirty-year-old Bhagbali has vivid childhood memories of life in his village Bokrakachhar, amidst the forests of Chhattisgarh. Reminiscing about the time before his family and many others were displaced from…
The government of India has been trying to change how India’s forests are governed, especially the national forest policy, for at least six years now but has been unable to…
India is yet to fully explore over 80 percent of its reserves of bauxite (an aluminium ore), notes a committee of India’s parliament, while emphasising that issues related to land…
The government of India is planning an ambitious programme for the rejuvenation of 13 major Indian rivers through forestry interventions at a cost of nearly Rs. 19,300 crores (Rs. 193…
The Marayoor sandalwood reserve in Kerala, spread over 1,460.77 hectares, close to one-sixth the size of Kochi, is currently one of the very few forests with high-quality sandalwood in India.…
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, commonly known as the FRA, is a landmark legislation in the history of independent India, as…
To mine or not to mine – that’s the question that seems to be looming over Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand forests. While the forests being pristine, rich in biodiversity and ecologically…
Chhattisgarh is home to some of India’s most precious forests but it is also an area rich in minerals such as iron ore. The race for extraction of these resources,…
About eight percent of the total recorded species of flora and fauna of the world and four of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots are located in India, according to Global…
In Uttarakhand, there is a strong drive to displace the nomadic pastoral tribe of Van Gujjars in order to protect wildlife. ‘Van’ means forest. It was an identity conceived by…
The government of India is once again making a move to amend the Indian Forest Act 1927 even as the effort made last time led to a serious pushback from…
As Similipal National Park and Tiger Reserve in Odisha burned over the past month, the debate over whether ownership of the park should be in the hands of the forest…