-Hindustan Times New Delhi: India’s forests are worth as much as the combined market value of BSE-listed companies with a notional value of Rs 115 trillion but the money collected from diverting parts of this land for industries won’t go to communities that live in and are dependent on the jungles. The Union environment ministry accepted most recommendations of a 2013 expert panel that hiked the rates at which industrialists pay for...
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Whose forests are these anyway? -Neera Singh
-The Indian Express The current bill does not take into account any of the criticism voiced against an earlier version, proposed under the UPA government in 2013; it continues to ignore the Forest Rights Act. A recent controversial bill that outlines a framework for the utilisation of compensatory afforestation funds is being strongly contested and challenged by civil society actors. It raises important questions that are fundamentally connected to forests: Whose...
More »A forest drought no one is talking about -Purshottam Singh Thakur, Ajit Panda & Anupam Chakravartty
-Down to Earth Severe dry spells in Indian forests have hit the livelihood of more than 100 million people. But India simply does not acknowledge this drought For more than five months, residents of Jabarra village have been foraging the forests for minor forest produce (MFP). The forest in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district is abundant with more than 200 types of forest produce and the district is known as Asia’s biggest trading...
More »Rules framed: Civil servants not allowed to criticise govt on social media -Aloke Tikku
-Hindustan Times Babus will need to be careful what they say, or draw, on social media. The Centre on Tuesday proposed changes to the rulebook to explicitly treat criticism of government policies on social media as a violation of conduct rules. And the threat of disciplinary action for criticising the government is not limited to the written word. It includes caricatures that are uncharitable to the government too. On the other hand, the new...
More »‘Almost 30 per cent of our land undergoing degradation’ -Madhumathi DS
-The Hindu ISRO-led study analysed satellite imageries of the country over an eight-year period Bengaluru: Nearly 30 per cent per cent of the country’s total geographical area is undergoing degradation, according to a study that analysed satellite imageries of the country over an eight-year period. The degrading area has increased over 0.5 per cent to 29.3 million hectares during the period, as shown by comparative remote-sensing satellite imageries of the States for the...
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