Carbon Copy A freshly passed amendment to the Forest Conservation Act has created a stir among ecologists, parliamentarians and stakeholders. With several contentious provisions, the amendment reveals an afforestation push where rights and justice take a backseat to commercial interests. This week, amidst a raucous monsoon session, the Indian Parliament saw the passage of several consequential pieces of legislation in quick succession. Among them was the contentious amendment to the Forest Conservation...

-The Hindu He said that every disengagement process, the Army climbed down further, thereby ceding the space to China and creating new buffer zones. The village head of one of the last settlements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh’s Chushul said on Tuesday that in the past year at least three large grazing areas near the village have been turned into “no man’s land” or “buffer zones” after Indian...

-Down to Earth So far livestock-related schemes were only catering to settled farmers, herders The Union government admitted that India’s pastoralist communities fell through the cracks when it comes to them benefitting from various schemes. It has urged states with sizeable population of such communities to work to prevent this. There is a significant population of pastoralists or cattle herders across India who move from one place to another to graze their animals....

-Down to Earth NFSA’s implementation through TPDS has not been uniform in the country, according to Centre The Government of India July 5, 2022, came up with a first-ever state ranking index to capture the implementation of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Odisha topped the list of 34 states and Union territories (UTs).  Ladakh was ranked last on the index. In fact, nine of the...

In the previous news alert, we looked at the under-nutrition problem in the Bundelkhand region in terms of 3 indicators -- proportion of children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age); proportion of children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height); and proportion of children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age). However, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data also indicates that severe under-nutrition like severe wasting and anaemia among...