-Down to Earth More than a dozen organizations from the hill state have come together to highlight dangers of climate change, exacerbated by exploitation of land, forests and water The glacial disaster in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district has a strong message for the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, which has a similar geography, topography and climate: To rethink the model of development being followed, particularly with regard to the exploitation of its hydroelectric...

-The Indian Express People do not want to risk their homes, fields, pastures, forests and rivers in the name of development. Most of such development work in the Himalayas is being carried out without an understanding of its fragility, seismicity, glacial behaviour, climatic changes and their collective destructive power. The flash floods due to the burst of an artificial lake created by a huge landslide (rock, frozen mud and ice) in Rishi...

-Down to Earth Ranthambhore tigers, Chambal gharials and a host of other species could be in trouble due to the clearance given to the highway proposals The Union government has approved Forest Land diversion for three highway proposals in Rajasthan’s Ranthambhore and Mukundara Tiger Reserves, disregarding the Wildlife Institute of India (WII)’s views, a Right to Information (RTI) application by Down To Earth has revealed. The proposals were approved October 5 last year...

-Down to Earth The ‘real owner’ of Forest Land is still the forest department. Such brazen violation of the law betrays a systematic attempt to implement FRA, reducing it to a symbol rather than a tool of empowerment The Dangs, the smallest district in Gujarat, is a thickly forested and tribal-dominated region that has been away from the ‘developmental’ paradigm till today. Some 77.5 per cent of its area is under forest cover,...

-Hindustan Times Among the major concerns of the gram sabhas with the proposed acquisition of the Forest Land is that it is being done without their consent and even before the land is diverted under the provisions of the forest conservation act Ten gram sabhas from Chhattisgarh’s Korba district, mainly consisting of people from the Gond tribe, have raised objections to Centre’s intention to acquire 712.072 hectares (ha) of land for mining...