-Down to Earth Tribal affairs minister asked to withdraw objections to Maharashtra's Village Forest Rules that allow forest department take control over forests in violation of FRA The Forest Rights Act (FRA), which protects the rights of tribal people and forest dwellers over their forests, is under fire like never before. Multiple ministries in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government are putting pressure on the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA)...

-The Business Standard Forest Rights Act being reinterpreted to avoid amendment Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is discussing possible ways to do away with the mandatory requirement of securing consent from tribal gram sabhas (village councils) before cutting down their forests for industrial purposes. The deliberations, on among various ministries, are for zeroing in on such a way that the requirement is removed without...

-The Hindustan Times The entire framework for monitoring environmental compliance is being dismantled systematically. This is a process that actually began with the UPA government, which replaced the feisty environment minister Jairam Ramesh with the more pliant Jayanthi Natarajan. With industry lobbies still crying wolf, she too made way for Veerappa Moily, the petroleum and natural gas minister, without the UPA seeing anything contradictory in someone holding both those responsibilities. In just a month,...

-The Economic Times Last month, union tribal Minister Jual Oram told the Lok Sabha that India is making "satisfactory progress" implementing the " Forest Rights Act" (FRA). However, a closer look at the numbers he submitted in the house indicates otherwise. The FRA is one of the three rights-based legislations passed by UPA1 -- along with the National Rural Employment Guarentee Act (NREGA) and the Right to Information ( RTI) Act. It...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: With Maharashtra losing 14 sqkm forest cover due to encroachments as per the latest 'India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2013', green activists have attributed the dwindling green cover to massive encroachments on forest land done to get permanent pattas under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. The fact is revealed by ISFR 2013 that states that Maharashtra lost 25 sq km in 12 tribal districts since...