Category: Environment, Forest and Climate change

Disenchanted Surjagad flaunts NOTA

The Hindu | Sharad Vyas | April 10, 2019

Nearly 25,000 voters to register protest against iron ore mining on forestland

A day after Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Bhima Mandavi was killed by Maoists in Dantewada, 70 gram sabhas along the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border have announced they will choose the NOTA, or none of the above, option in the Lok Sabha election on Thursday.

An estimated 25,000 voters living around the iron ore deposits of Surjagad in remote Gadchiroli took this decision in protest against the Maharashtra government’s approval of iron ore mining on 40,900 acres of forestland and the increased “militarisation” of 70 gram sabhas in the Etapalli tehsil, having a population of 81,700 spread over 180 villages in the highly sensitive security zone. Read more

Forest Rights Act poorly implemented in ST areas

Orissa Post | April 11, 2019

Bhubaneswar: A recent study conducted by the Community Forest Rights Learning and Action Group based on government agency data and responses to RTI queries found that the status of implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006) in Scheduled Tribe (ST) constituencies was very poor.

The study conducted by the national think-tank examined the status of FRA implementation in the 33 Assembly constituencies reserved for STs.

The Assembly seats covered 11 of the 30 districts, 16,229 inhabited villages and 20,25,740 households with an ST population of 54,61,507 and an SC population of 9,86,217. The study analysed the success of the legislation in the scheduled areas.
The study found that 2.76 lakh Individual Forest Rights (IFR) were distributed between 2008 and August 2018. This constituted 66 per cent of the total titles distributed in the state, while 0.02 per cent of the titles were distributed to Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs). Read more

Intricacies of abolishing child labour

The Hans India | Dr MOHAN KANDA | April 10, 2019

Much has been said and written about the scourge of child labour, worldwide as well as in India. The malady has had a chequered history for centuries, with societies and governments adopting approaches suited to the ethos and culture of their environments at different times.

rom the second half of the previous century, however, it has been accepted universally that employing children for work is a pernicious practice. As a result, several measures have been taken, legal, policy and operational, by various countries including our own.

In the strict and formal sense, child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives them of childhood, prevents them from attending school and harms them physically, mentally, socially and morally. Read more

Report card: Centre, states did little to improve air quality in 14 most polluted cities

Citizen Matters | Prerna Chatterjee

Election manifestos released recently by the BJP, Congress and CPI(M) seem to show some responsibility towards the declining environmental standards of the country. The Congress manifesto, for instance describes air pollution as a “national public health emergency”. The BJP manifesto promised to reduce pollution levels by at least 35% over the next five years in 102 cities. However, past experience shows that the promises made on paper remain largely unimplemented. Few elected representatives seem committed to improve air quality in their respective cities and constituencies. Read more

Aravallis broken beyond repair

Down To Earth | Jitendra, Shagun Kapil | 09 April 2019

Illegal mining has ravaged the mountain range in the past few decades. Down To Earth investigates the loss and traces the legal developments in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi

Abdal khan is a prisoner of geography. A resident of Nimli village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Khan, who claims to be over 100 years old, is mostly bedridden in his home nestled in the foothills of the Aravallis. He stays quiet most of the time, but a mention of the Aravallis triggers an outburst. “I have accompanied British officials on hunting tours on these hills. Where we are sitting now was once a thick forest,” he says. There are only a few like him alive, who can remember the once ecologically rich Aravallis and also witnessed its gradual demise. His youngest daughter, Dini Bi, who is half his age, lives some 50 km north in Banban village of the same district, also located in the mountain range, which has almost disappeared. While Khan laments the loss of forests, his daughter is not so mournful. “It was good when the mountain was there. But mining gave us jobs,” she says. Read more

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