-Down to Earth The next generation of the current poor Indians has high probability of remaining poor as well. Lack of access to resources like forests and social discrimination have set in the dreaded chronic poverty among India’s socially marginalised groups, ironically the target of poverty eradication programmes since last 70 years Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to eradicate poverty in India by 2022, or in the next five years, is...

-Livemint.com The river interlinking project will adversely affect land, forests, biodiversity, rivers and the livelihood of millions of people Interlinking of rivers is a very expensive proposal. It has huge adverse environmental impacts on land, forests, biodiversity, rivers and the livelihood of millions of people. It is a socially disruptive proposition. It will not only add to climate change impact (destruction of forests means destruction of carbon sinks, and reservoirs in tropical...

-Scroll.in The court refused to order a CBI inquiry into connivance of officials in the Rs 60,000 crore scam, but directed the setting up of an expert committee. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said mining companies that had been operating without necessary clearances in Odisha would be subject to a 100% penalty on the price of the ore that had been illegally extracted. The court also said that the government’s policy...

-Scroll.in Gadchiroli has recognised community forest rights in 66% of eligible land, compared to the state’s figure of 15%. Ten years after the Centre passed a law granting Adivasis and other forest dwellers rights to manage resources in forest lands, Maharashtra has emerged as the front-runner among states in implementing the provisions of this legislation, followed closely by Kerala. A new report by Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy – a collective...

-TheWire.in The government knows what it wants to achieve where the environment is concerned, even if it is at the cost of the protection of ecosystems, and people’s livelihood and well being. The last three years under the Modi government have seen the transformation of the environment from being a field of relative stability and inactivity, to functioning as an active instrument of capital accumulation. The sharp polarisation between extremely positive initiatives...