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
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 …
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
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
Jungle raj
CAG memo shows IFS officers are administering country’s premier forestry research body like a fiefdom
A new roadblock
Tribal affairs ministry objects to Maharashtra's Village Forest Rules that violate FRA. Other ministeries pressure it to backtrack
Halfway through
Tribal affairs ministy attempts to give forest dwellers their due welfare benefits, through a compromise
‘Forests can’t survive without communities’
Nepal’s Forest Act of 1993, which allows communities to manage their forests, is admired and emulated by governments and movements across …
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 …