The government says area under forests has been increasing for the last 13 years. ET finds this is the outcome of statistical jugglery and the use of flawed definitions by India's forest bureaucracy. The bald truth is India's forests are in serious decline, both in numbers and in health. In February, the latest instalment of a little environmental kabuki played out when the Forest Survey of India released its biennial report...

City-based NGO Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, in association with other forums and NGOs have helped the tribal populations in the Biligiri Rangaswamy temple sanctuary, also a tiger reserve, in Karnataka, to come up with an alternative community-based plan for conservation, livelihood and management of forest. So far, out of around 62 settlements, 25 in this protected area have got the community forest rights. According to experts, similar processes should also be...

With the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka going to get a tiger reserve status, the Soligas living there face imminent eviction.NEVER before have the tigers of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Wildlife Sanctuary burned so bright, either in popular imagination or in administrative priority. With the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests approving “in principle” the status of a tiger reserve for the BRT sanctuary, the endangered cat has taken...