-The Telegraph The Supreme Court has disbanded its 17-year-old green sentinel. The court has wound up its green bench that sat every Friday since 1995 to deal with matters of forests and wildlife and had recently banned iron ore mining in Bellary, Karnataka, one among a host of far-reaching orders related to the environment. No reasons were given for disbanding the bench, a move legal experts said was inexplicable. The bench has, however, not...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Where will the nuclear waste from the Kudankulam nuclear power plant be kept and what are the Centre's plans to process the spent fuel to ensure that it does not damage the environment? This is what the Madras high court, hearing a batch of public interest petitions on the nuclear plant, wants to know from the Centre. But in the absence of the additional solicitor-general (ASG) of...

-The Times of India The trade in tendu patta, used for bidi making, is estimated to be worth an annual Rs 20,000 crore and is monopolized by state corporations, contractors, traders and even left-wing extremists. This could change now with the tribal affairs ministry asking states to break the monopoly of state corporations and let tribals sell it freely.  Coming on the back of his remarks on the Bijapur killings, tribal affairs...

-The Telegraph The Centre today announced fresh guidelines to protect the rights of forest dwellers and “undo” years of “injustice” these tribal people have had to face over claims on land and minor produce. Sources said the Union tribal affairs ministry, which issued the guidelines, felt the implementation of the forest rights act (FRA) had been “poor” on the ground. “The FRA aims to undo the historic injustice made against the tribal people...

-The Hindustan Times Thousands of tribals living in forests across will now be able to claim land as Tribal Affairs ministry on Thursday relaxed norms in a bid to thwart attempt of forest department official to reject the claims.   As per the new rules notified under the forest rights act, the ministry had allowed tribal and forest dwellers to submit all available evidence to claim land in forest areas. The forest department...