Facing heat from the Centre over mining projects in his State, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is expected to raise concerns over recommendations of a government panel on the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. Mr. Patnaik said he would apprise Dr. Singh on the adverse effects the recommendations would have on investments in the State. “I shall be meeting the Prime Minister and take up matters regarding the Polavaram...

The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has created controversy in West Bengal. The gram sabha, the basic unit in the process of Forest rights recognition, has been replaced by the gram sansad, denoting the village level constituency under the panchayati raj system. This has been followed by contiguous arrangements as well as initiatives which are inconsistent with the Act....

In a bid to increase employment and integrate locals with the administration, especially in naxal-hit areas, tribal people with some basic education could soon be hired as community Forest officers on a seasonal basis. If the original proposal is approved, the Chhattisgarh Forest department alone will get an additional workforce of 1.2 lakh people at the annual cost of Rs. 450 crore. Speaking at a national conference on reforms in Forestry administration...

Jharkhand’s implementation of the Centre’s flagship scheme to grant land rights to Forest dwellers has been extremely poor, ringing hollow promises by successive governments to uphold rights of over three lakh tribals of the state. According to a report prepared by a 19-member committee constituted by the Union ministry of environment and Forests, 24 districts of Jharkhand had granted land rights to a mere 7,207 Forest dwellers under Scheduled Tribes and...

Four days after a government-appointed expert panel recommended that Vedanta Resources should not be allowed to go ahead with its bauxite mining project in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, the Congress announced that its general secretary Rahul Gandhi would be visiting Niyamgiri on August 26. In a report to Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, the expert panel headed by N C Saxena, a retired IAS officer who is a...