Researchers investigated knowledge of biodiversity, particularly non-timber forest products (NTFPs), among local urban residents in West Bengal and found that increasing local communities’ connectedness with nature is an important way to…
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…
As fragmentation of forests, commercial plantations and uncertain weather conditions threaten the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve on the Western Ghats highlands in southern India, a community of indigenous honey harvesters say…
It was the month of November, last year. One could feel the chill in the air. Dal Bahadur, a beekeeper from Turuk, Sikkim was harvesting honey from his traditional hive.…
Tribal families living in north-eastern Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district have employed a sustainable way of honey extraction which does not harm the bees. The families have been collecting honey from the…
For the past 14 years, artisan Deepak Dewangan has been weaving magic out of bamboo. Based in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh which falls under the Bastar division, Dewangan has been…
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…
The cost of relocating tribal people, forest dwellers and pastoral communities for biodiversity conservation in India, is projected to be over a thousand times more than the cost of community-based…
Protecting natural forests and wildlife has been a way of life for indigenous communities inside Similipal Biosphere in Odisha. Their efforts have been recognised a few years ago under the…
Sanjay Kumar Hansda, a member of the Santhal tribe, would usually earn as much as Rs. 25,000 between March and June by collecting and selling minor forest products. However, this…
From covering 640,819 square kilometres (19.49 percent) of India’s total land area in 1987 to covering 712,249 sq. km. (21.67 percent) of the country’s geographical area in 2019, India’s forest…
Every year millions of Indians, who belong to scheduled tribes, collect Rs. two trillion (Rs. 200,000 crore) worth of non-timber forest products (NTFP) from the country's forests. However, in the…
Sukhdeb Mandy is a sap tapper at Aambera village in Bankura district of West Bengal. The 28-year-old collects sap from date palm trees during the winter season. During the rest…
With a yellow towel wrapped around his shoulders, Ganesh Majhi, 54, of Deogada village, in Belghar gram panchayat of Odisha’s Kandhamal district, is angry about the teak trees in the…
Long-term rural extraction of biomass in oak-dominated Himalayan forests disturbs the forest structure. This, in turn, affects diversity and composition of insect-eating birds and oak forest specialists, which were the…
Once every four years the Indian government releases an estimate of the total number of tigers in India. The estimate for 2018 was announced on July 29, 2019, which is…
Hatjalhing Lhanghal resides in Khochijang village of Manipur, around 60 kilometers from the state capital Imphal. Khochijang is a remote village in Tuibuong block of Churchandrapur district, surrounded by mountains…
Anita Devi gently opens the small muslin cloth. A bunch of thin, dusty caterpillars, speckled with a white mould and a slender grey tip come in view. Her son, Pratham…
The forests of the northern Eastern Ghats have been experiencing rapid degradation over the past two and a half decades, with degradation levels higher around the villages inside Papikonda National…
What is the best strategy for increasing green cover outside recorded forest areas? Leasing of wasteland to the corporate sector for re-greening is among the major recommendations that a report…
