Recently, on discovering that I work in the forest department, a lady co-passenger in a flight asked, “Are you people really doing anything for the forests?” The unconcealed taunt set me and my friends discussing with the sceptic the scenario of green governance in India. How are we managing our …
The Goa government’s reluctance to scrap a controversial shipyard project has left the 200-odd families of Chicalim village distraught. In 2005, Bharti Shipyard Limited proposed to construct a Rs 250-crore shipyard on about 0.8 hectare of mudflats in the ecologically fragile Chicalim Bay in Mormugao taluka. The Goa Coastal Zone …
AMID countrywide agitations over land acquisition and growing food security concerns, the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj is considering reserving land for agriculture. The ministry has suggested a bill that would make it mandatory for all states to declare the most fertile land (or category I agricultural land) …
If you happen to see a swarm of butterflies flying above the terrace of your office in the crowded Bengaluru city, count yourself lucky. You are witness to the largest annual butterfly migration in southern India. Every year between October and December, swarms of Dark Blue Tiger and Double Branded …
A High Powered Committee set up by the Central government has suggested that allocation of natural resources should go to the highest bidder. This 13-member committee, headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, submitted its recommendations in the first week of June. It was set up in January in the …
Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for …
This is an environmental assessment study for the proposed National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP) to be implemented in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 Indian states with an aim to increase and sustain income of the poor, especially women.
Two months ago, residents of Thervoy Kandigai in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu were set to take forward the fight to save their land. Despite their opposition, the environment ministry in August this year had given clearance to an industrial park near the village. The residents decided to challenge the …
THE Kerala Cricket Association’s plan to build a stadium designed to international specifications at Edakochi has run afoul of environmental laws. The state forest department has filed a first information report in a magistrate’s court saying the cricket association (KCA) has destroyed mangrove trees in preparation for the construction work. …
THE forest departments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are forcibly evicting tribals from forestland. Around 50 huts of the Korku community in Madhya Pradesh were demolished on August 29. On July 30, forest guards assaulted tribals of the Kunbi community for cultivating in forestland in Dang district in Gujarat. The …
Land for industries is acquired either through the government or through private negotiations with land owners. The government categorises agricultural land as single crop, double crop or barren. Compensation is determined depending on the category. After the government rates were revised in March, the compensation for doublecrop irrigated land went …
THE Great Indian Desert, Thar, is expanding, swallowing and degrading about 12,000 hectares of productive land every year. An alarmed Rajasthan government recently asked the state pollution control board to suggest how to arrest the land degradation and soil erosion. The board reviewed about 200 research papers on the impact …
Considering the role and importance of rational and orderly growth of urban centers, the Government of Punjab intends to streamline the development process in urban settlements to ensure that these settlements continue to achieve their objectives of improved efficiency and productivity. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a stringent check …
The premise of this paper is that, despite the existence of a well-established regulatory framework to enforce environmental laws and policies in each state of India, there has been a variation in the implementation of environmental judgments. This paper argues that an independent and proactive Court-appointed monitoring committee, namely the …
Uncontrolled fires across Indonesia burn large areas of peatland and create vast palls of smoke on an almost annual basis. This has devastating effect on wildlife, human health, the economy and climate. Yet, more than 10 years after the massive fires of 1997-98 grabbed international headlines, the problem is still …
Land degradation is a global development and environment issue that afflicts China more than most countries in terms of the extent, economic impact, and number of people affected. Up-to-date, quantitative information is needed to support policy and action for food and water security, economic development, and environmental integrity. Data for …
The "rice culture" of Kerala is fast vanishing due to the increasing diversion of the land for non-agricultural purposes. The real estate sector is gradually swallowing up the rice cultivating low-lying wetlands. This paper attempts to examine the growth of real estate business and consequent destruction of the wetland ecosystems …
Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum) is a perennial cash crop grown under the Himalayan alder (Alnus nepalensis) or mix forest tree species in the hills of Nepal, Darjeeling hills, Sikkim and Bhutan. The cardamom based agroforestry system in the Himalayas has proved to be a sustainable land use practice at the …
Diversity and refuge function for indigenous fauna and flora in anthropogenically influenced habitats in tropical regions under global change on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
The study examined the effects of land acquisition for large scale farming on the performance; productivity and technical efficiency of small-scale farming in Nigeria. The primary data for the study were collected from 200 small-scale farmers selected using the multistage sampling technique, from three local government areas in Ondo State, …
