-TheWire.in Rights groups tell parliamentary panel that even though late environment minister Anil Dave had assured that concerns would be addressed, rules have still not been framed. New Delhi: Civil society organisations working on environmental conservation have petitioned the parliamentary commission, asking for the repeal or amending of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 (CAF Act) to ensure its compliance with the Forest Rights Act (FRA) . Coming together under the banner of...

-Down to Earth The Pithoragarh administration has not even formed district-level committee to implement FRA The proposed 5040-MW Pancheshwar dam project, to be jointly carried out by India and Nepal, has been facing flak from environment activists for some time now. In a latest development, around 10 civil society organisations (CSOs) wrote to the Uttarakhand Chief Minister and the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, objecting to the manner in which district administrative...

-The Hindu Deregulating bamboo production does not address the issue of building a transparently governed forest sector Governments everywhere tend to look for quick-fixes, overlooking complexities and ignoring the big picture. The move by the Centre to “de-regulate” bamboo production by amending the definition of “trees” under the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927, is a great example of this tendency. In November 2017, the Central government issued an ordinance whereby “bamboo” was...

-Down to Earth States exploit the delay in the drafting of rules for the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act to assert rights over land claimed by communities under the Forest Rights Act More than a year after Parliament passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 (CAF), the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) is yet to roll out the mandatory rules to implement it. In fact, the ministry in November...

-Scroll.in At the heart of the problem is a discrepancy between two laws on rights for Adivasis to the bamboo growing on their traditional forestlands. Across the world, taxonomists have classified bamboo as a grass. But under Indian law, it was treated as a tree. This definition has long given state forest departments monopolistic control over the valuable natural resource. On November 23, the central government loosened this grip by amending the...