-Hindustan Times The Union environment ministry has come out with a consultation paper on amending the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to bring significant changes to forest governance in India including facilitating private plantations for harvesting and exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas deep beneath forest land by drilling holes from outside the Forest areas. Here are the highlights of the environment ministry’s proposal: Forests on private land Until December 1996, provisions of...

-Down to Earth Between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of humid tropical forests have been cleared since the early 1990s  Tropical forests are losing their capacity to cycle carbon and water, according to a study using a new tracking system. The system was developed by a team of international scientists to monitor tropical forest vulnerability between 1982 and 2018.  In Africa, forests show relative resilience to climate, according to the study. African...

Media reports indicate that at the start of the southwest monsoon season, lightning strikes caused the death of over 70 people in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on a single day i.e. 11th July, 2021. Prior to those separate events related to human casualty caused by thunderbolts, eighteen elephants were found dead on a hilltop at Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest situated in Assam's Nagaon district on...

-The Hindu Korra Bhagavan sometimes walks 10 km to the most remote areas to attend to the sick in Red corridor VAKULURU (EAST GODAVARI): Deep inside Maoist territory along the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB), a doctor from the Bagata tribe, Korra Bhagavan, makes the arduous trek across the forests with unfailing regularity, come rain or shine. His mission? Ensure that tribals living in the most remote, inaccessible villages get medical treatment in their hour...

-Citizen's Report on Year Two of the NDA-II Government 2020-2021: Promises and Reality, Civil Society Initiative, Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, released in July, 2021  “Promises & Reality – Citizens’ Report on the Year Two of the NDA II Government, 2020-21” is a collective work by eminent members and organisations of the Indian civil society. The report covers a wide array of concerns and issues in thematic areas including health,...