A memo to the government

To be a truly participatory republic, India must take tutorials from these tiny republics

In Birsa's Land: Horomocho (Hazaribagh, Jharkhand)

A coal mine to own and manage • Sustainability not profit as a principle • Revival of an ancient Santhal system of governance

Unshakable: Nimalapedu (Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh)

Reminded India of its constitutional mandate for village autonomy • Fought bauxite companies for not getting gram sabha consent • Has …

A Republican Paradise: Mendha (Gadchirolli, Maharashtra)

Defied the Forest Act ÔÇó Every resident contributes part of annual income for community works ÔÇó If somebody bribes a …

What led to forest officer’s killing

In Andhra Pradesh, revenue department gives land to poor, forest department wants it back

Redemption from litter

Uttarakhand non-profits have taken responsibility for clearing tourists’ plastic waste

Colonial hangover persists

Forest Act Amendment Bill maintains the forest department as the supreme controlling agency

Trespassers allowed

Unregulated tourism around the Corbett Tiger Reserve has restricted animal movement  

Missing timber for wood

As the demand-supply gap for timber widens in India, it is time to exploit the potential of private plantations and government-managed forests in …

Forest officials kept eyes tightly shut

When it was found there were no tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve, P K Sen was called to join the government special investigation team. …

Bamboo freed

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

Protectors dubbed criminals

Tribals in Madhya Pradesh celebrate festival to reclaim forests; officials say they are encroaching land

Jumbo conflict

Human-elephant conflict is rising across India. Every year nearly 400 people are killed by elephants and about 100 elephants lose their lives. …

Disowned 100,000

Taungyas have lived in Uttar Pradesh for decades but law does not recognise them. FRA gives hope

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

Indigenous civil engineers

Traditional earth diggers and masons, who mined the Bhatti area of the Aravallis for decades, dig in their heels as the Delhi administration …

Age of dissent

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

Grasping at grass

Maldharis resort to Forest Rights Act as forest department plans to restrict grazing on Banni grassland

Struck at the root

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

A new roadblock

Tribal affairs ministry objects to Maharashtra's Village Forest Rules that violate FRA. Other ministeries pressure it to backtrack

Jungle raj

CAG memo shows IFS officers are administering country’s premier forestry research body like a fiefdom

Halfway through

Tribal affairs ministy attempts to give forest dwellers their due welfare benefits, through a compromise

They also serve

Though it controls 23.4 per cent of the country's land, the Indian Forest Service has little administrative clout. For long the stepchild of …

Simply Put: India’s forest guard

Paper forests