-The Hindu ‘We had to walk 40 to 50 km., in flood, to collect foodgrains' Raipur: While the Chhattisgarh government is touting its food policy as the most successful model of production and distribution of food grains in the country, the people of Abujhmarh - a vast swath of Forestland in south-west Chhattisgarh - spent another monsoon without adequate food. Several villagers told The Hindu that the fair price shops, run by Gram...

-The Hindu The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General underscoring the blatant violation of conservation laws and Supreme Court orders in the diversion of Forests for destructive non-Forestry use confirms what former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said about the system: it's a bit of a joke. The compensatory afForestation mechanism instituted to balance the devastating loss of natural Forests has failed abysmally. The CAG's report is proof that India's...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Western Ghats may be in danger again. This time from a "drinking water" supply project. Yettinahole diversion project located in the ecologically sensitive zone as per the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel involves 8 dams inside the Forests, 250kms long canals, 80kms and 50kms long raising mains, a reservoir that will submerge 1200 hectares of land and 2 villages according to a recent assessment by...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday came out all guns blazing against the National Green Tribunal, called the most important environment forum in history by the Supreme Court, and accused the tribunal of exceeding its brief and becoming a source of "embarrassment" for it in Parliament. "The NGT is not functioning as per the provisions of the NGT Act. This has been resulting in embarrassment to the government...

-The Hindu     The draft policy on the use of Forest land is at odds with sound conservation principles and fails to plug holes in current guidelines that work to the advantage of project promoters The Supreme Court in July 2011 while delivering the Lafarge Judgment laid down guidelines on Forest clearance procedures. These were to operate till a new regulatory mechanism was put in place. Two years after the judgment, the Ministry...