-The Times of India Post Kathua, these nomadic people are struggling to protect their daughters, as well as their rights over open pastures Bashir Hussain worries constantly for his five-year-old daughter Najma, ever since the horrific gang-rape and murder in Kathua. “What will I do if something happens to her? What happened to the eight-year-old Bakerwal girl could happen only because we have no rights over forests and pastures in this state....
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For Adivasis in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli, mining has brought increased militarisation and violence -Raksha Kumar
-Scroll.in They complain that the state treats ordinary villagers opposing mining in the Surjagarh forest no different than it does the Maoists. Nestled deep in the Surjagarh forest of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, Gatta seems a serene village. Most people grow their rice, sell tendu leaves, celebrate with mahua and enjoy the lush overgrowth around them. But a closer look throws up a different picture. Reaching Gatta from Allapally, the nearest town in...
More »Women are the guardians of the forest. So why does India ignore them in its policies? -Purabi Bose
-Scroll.in It is important that forest policies are formulated through a gender-sensitive lens and that women are included in the conversation. A few weeks ago, when Google India marked the 45th anniversary of the Chipko movement with a doodle, it was a refreshing flashback to forest communities sacrificing their lives to protect trees from being felled for timber use. One of the first such recorded community protests was at Khejarli village in...
More »Anti-forest, anti-forest dweller -Chitrangada Choudhury
-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Fund is a deeply flawed and unjust mechanism Last month, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Mahesh Sharma informed Parliament that his Ministry has collected over ?50,000 crore in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). This money is to be used though the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 or CAF, a purported mechanism to offset forest loss. Before issuing forest clearances to a...
More »Centre seeks to change forest policy to promote industrial plantations in natural forests -Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava
-Scroll.in The existing policy bans commercial activity in natural forests to protect forest dwellers. The new draft policy is up for public comments till April 14. The Union government has drafted a new National Forest Policy. If approved, the policy will allow the corporate sector to grow, harvest and sell trees on government-owned forest lands. So far, this is explicitly banned under the existing National Forest Policy, which was laid down...
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