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 Since NFHS-1, Madhya Pradesh has been struggling to tackle the problem Ever since a confidential report by the Madhya Pradesh Accountant-General came to light, about “large scale fraud/misappropriation etc. in the identification of beneficiaries, production, transportation, distribution and quality control of THR [Take Home Ration]”, the government has been facing severe criticism from the Opposition and activists. Last month, ahead of the translocation of eight cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno National...

--Press release by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) dated September 21, 2022 Over One lakh People Already Evicted in 2022. Nearly 1 Million People Faced Evictions in India in the Last Five Years. In 2021, over 36,480 houses were demolished and 2,07,106 people were forcibly evicted across India by governments – at all levels, reveals a new report by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN). The report also finds that in...

-The Telegraph The scientist, Madhav Gadgil, turns 80 this month I come from a family of scientists, but I shied away from studying science myself. Yet, in a happy irony, it turned out that the most important intellectual collaboration of my life was with a scientist, Madhav Gadgil, whose eightieth birthday falls later this month. Born in Pune, Gadgil studied in Bombay, and at Harvard, where he took a PhD in ecology and...

-Down to Earth Wildfires have been reported from the buffer zone of Silent Valley National Park apart from Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Attappadi Reserve Forest and Walayar Reserve Forest Kerala has witnessed raging wildfires in the last four days as an unusually early summer has raised temperatures by two to three degrees Celsius above average. The state’s flora and fauna have suffered as a result of the climate change-induced extreme weather events. Wildfires have...