-The Business Standard Against nodal ministry's protest, under PMO guidance, MoEF prepares to largely remove need for gram sabha agreement to use or give away forest land The central government is set to dilute the rights of tribals and other forest-dwelling communities, doing away with the present legal need for their consent while handing over their forest land to industry in large parts of the country. Business Standard has reviewed documents that detail...

-The Hindustan Times Continuing with its business-friendly regulatory changes, the Narendra Modi government has brought in a key change diminishing the applicability of watershed Forest Rights Act (FRA) for seeking statutory forest clearance for projects. The environment ministry has exempted Plantations, notified as forests within 75 years of the FRA coming into force on 13 December 2005 - and not having tribal population as per 2001 and 2011 census - from the...

-The Business Standard About 20% of area under crop damaged by recent cyclone in Araku valley Bangalore: Cyclone Hudhud, which left a trail of destruction in coastal Andhra Pradesh, has left its mark on coffee Plantations in the Araku valley in Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha as well. The upcoming organic coffee Plantations in the valley have been devastated. According to Coffee Board, about 20 per cent of the bean-bearing plants have...

-The Hindu Malnutrition deaths were reported from Bandapani in July West Bengal: Intervening in sick tea gardens of the State for the first time, the Government of West Bengal has taken over the Bandapani Tea garden located in the Madarihaat block of Alipurduar district in West Bengal, and put up a notice on the gate that the land belongs to the State government. The tea garden has been closed since July 2013. When...

-The Hindu Panchayat takes uncultivated land on lease for farming ALAPPUZHA (Kerala): Any visitor to Thazhakara grama panchayat in Mavelikara taluk is bound to be welcomed by vast expanses of paddy fields. The local body has scripted a success story by reviving paddy cultivation and vegetable farming on a land that remained barren for around three decades. The panchayat achieved the turnaround by identifying uncultivated land and convincing private landowners to provide such...