-Down to Earth Chhattisgarh government reinstates the role of the Forest department to coordinate claims that are to be filed by communities, according to the basic structure and procedures laid out in law     “There is no doubt that this order is against the law and betrays the FRA 2006 in its letter and spirit. The state government of Chhattisgarh is bound to take this illegal order back. The rollback of this...

-The Wire Science NASA released a satellite image last year showing that India, with China, is “greening the world”. The greening has been thanks to the colonial ideologies that have bequeathed the legacy of greening India, which has been upheld by the subsequent governments. The British drafted the first National Forest Policy for India to convert its Forests into timber production stands. Decades later, the Indian government safeguarded these stands with...

-Vikalp.ind.in During the late 1950s when villages near the Kyasanur Forest in Karnataka started to become crowded, farmers began to clear the Forest to find new land for agriculture as well as for construction of houses and roads. This brought them to close contact with the primates in the Forest. When Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) outbreak took place among monkeys, the virus did not take much time to jump species and...

-The Hindu The projects, including mining and a highway, were brought up during virtual conferences; but site inspections are ‘a crucial component’ of project evaluation, say scientists Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh has a decidedly other-worldly feel. “Yeh kaunsi duniya hai,” my colleague exclaimed as we climbed the towering mountains — home to the endemic goat-antelope Mishmi takin, the ‘bright-eyed’ butterfly Callerebia dibangensis, and the Mishmi wren-babbler. I had read about the...

-The Indian Express Medical officer Dr Mohammed Mukram drove through the Forests and shifted the expectant mother to the public healthcare centre in his car with the help of an ASHA worker and ensured a safe institutional delivery. Hyderabad: At a time the health machinery is overburdened fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, a doctor in Telangana’s Mahabubabad district helped an expecting mother by himself driving around 70 km to make her reach the...