-Scroll.in Instead, for a start, we should allow forests to regrow naturally. Planting trees creates a plantation, not a forest. India is again wasting valuable time, effort and resources on a national scale as it races to forestall an impending water crisis. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is conducting massive afforestation drives, planting native species. But a forest is a self-sown, self-regenerating community of plants and dependent organisms, from...

-Mongabay.com * Indian government enacted the Forest Rights Act in 2006 to correct the historic injustice done to tribal people and forest dwellers but the implementation of the landmark legislation has been far from satisfactory. * A recent study reveals a large variation in the outcomes of claims submitted under the FRA Act across states. It found that states with more forest cover have higher claim distribution rates, while states with presence...

-The Indian Express Gender equality is key to food security. But policymakers don’t seem to recognise that Countries globally, including India, have agreed to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), launched by the UNDP in 2016 as “a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity”. Among the 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030, SDG 5...

-The Hindu Braving Maoist call for boycott, villagers exercise franchise Karimnagar (Tenlangana): In spite of heightened naxalite threat, villagers, mostly dominated by tribal communities, have set an example in Telangana by recording over 90% polling in the Maoist stronghold villages in the interior Mahadevpur, Kataram and Mahamutharam mandals adjoining the Chhattisgarh in the erstwhile Karimnagar district, now in Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district. Braving the Maoist call for poll boycott, people formed serpentine queues to exercise...

-The Hindu Urge parties to frame policies to preserve MUNDRI: For southern Rajasthan’s tribals, the Assembly elections are an opportunity to press their demand with the contesting political parties for framing policies that ensure food security, even while helping them preserve indigenous practices, and assist in forming new linkages with the local health and financial services. The region’s tribal population wants political representatives to make interventions to help the community improve resource management...