-Outlook In addition to amending the Rules of the Forest Rights Act, greater attention needs to be paid to changing the Land Acquisition Act   There is no explicit provision in the Forest Rights Act, 2006 for obtaining permission of the Gram Sabha for diversion of forest lands to non-forest purposes. However, Section 4(5) of the Act prevents government to evict any forest dweller unless the recognition process as provided in the...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: With Maharashtra losing 14 sqkm forest cover due to encroachments as per the latest 'India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2013', green activists have attributed the dwindling green cover to massive encroachments on forest land done to get permanent pattas under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. The fact is revealed by ISFR 2013 that states that Maharashtra lost 25 sq km in 12 tribal districts since...

-The Hindu Country still has large swathes of contiguous forests accounting for 40% of the forest cover There has been an increase of 5,871 sq km of the country's forest area since 2011, even as moderately dense forest areas have depleted due to population increase, grazing and encroachments, says the biennial "India State of Forest Report 2013," which was released on Tuesday. Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar, who...

-Down to Earth   Reason: development projects and encroachments   In the past three decades, the Maharashtra state has lost a whopping 1,610 sq km of forests, says the annual administrative report of the Maharashtra forest department. Most of this loss, says the report, is due to either development projects or encroachment.   According to the report, the forest area in the state totalled 62,971 sq km in 1984-85, which included 42,610 sq km of reserve...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: A German researcher's study of the dying Yamuna is an interesting take on Delhi's aspirations to be a 'world class city' vis-a-vis its utter failure in conserving the river. The study talks about Delhi's constant obsession with beautifying and developing Delhi's riverfront and how this has ironically meant nothing but further deterioration of the riparian ecology. Titled 'Bourgeois Environmentalism and the Reclamation of Yamuna's Floodplain...