Activists opposed to the Posco project in Orissa have decided not to give "an inch of land" for the mega steel venture, even as the BJD government was gearing to start land acquisition over the next two weeks. Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) Chairman Abhaya Sahu said that anti-Posco movement was passing through a very "critical stage" after Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh gave clearance for the project. "We have been fighting...

As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers come together to devise ways to protect shared resources On a cold January night in Hyderabad, a fortnight ago, Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests, was led to an open-air dinner by folk drummers and body-painted tiger dancers as an appreciative audience of international academics and grassroots workers cheered and milled around him. Ramesh had become the toast of...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's observation that enforcement of environmental regulatory standards should not lead to a throwback to the days of the licence-permit raj strikes a jarring note in an era of enlightened, science-based conservation. By projecting regulation as a threat to economic development, he has brought needless pressure to bear on the nascent efforts of Minister Jairam Ramesh to bring accountability and transparency to the Ministry of Environment and...

THE Union government is reviewing its landmark initiative, the Forest Rights Act, four years after enacting it. The aim is to find how to strengthen the law which was legislated to ensure the traditional rights of 100 million forest dwelling people in the country. Two high-level groups submitted their assessment in the first week of January. But it seems the Union ministry of environment and forests has made up its mind...

Sikkim has become the only state to bag the national award in all three categories for exemplary work done under MG-NREGA during the recent Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Sammelan in New Delhi. The sammelan was held to commemorate the completion of the fifth year of the commencement of this programme and to give away awards to the best performing gram panchayats, district MGNREGA teams and NGOs by the Union Rural Development ministry. North...