Category: Environment, Forest and Climate change

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

FRA: Himachal Van Adhikar Manch announces one-day protest on April 11

Times of India | Seema Sharma | April 8, 2019

CHANDIGARH: Himachal Van Adhikar Manch has announced a one-day protest on April 11 at Seri Manch in Mandi to seek a speedy and just implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. Its members said that despite the significance of this Act for the communities in Himachal Pradesh whose livelihoods are dependent upon agricultural and livestock rearing, the state government and bureaucracy have both failed to implement this Act efficiently on the ground. Read more

Aliens in their own lands: When Chhattisgarh’s tribals were turned into encroachers

The Hindu || Jacob Koshy || April 6, 2019

In Chhattisgarh, the Forest Rights Act potentially allows 7.4 million tribal and other traditional forest dwellers to claim land rights. However, half these claims have been rejected and the land siphoned off, often arbitrarily. Jacob Koshy reports on the difficulties in implementing the Act and the plight of the Adivasis

Three years ago, Sunder Singh Kumeti, a Gond tribal, lost access to a parcel of land in the forest that he and his family had foraged for two generations. Before that, Kumeti recalls his work routine as being more or less the same everyday from boyhood. He would walk, along with his fellow villagers, several kilometres into the forest abutting his village looking for flowers from the mahua tree, or wood from the stout sal tree. His village, Patkalbeda, located in Antagarh panchayat of Kanker district in Chhattisgarh,is mostly forest area, though not classified as a reserve forest or a protected area. Read more

Minerals Are Shared Inheritance: How Can We Ensure That Our Children Inherit Their Share?

The Logical India || Contributors Written by : Rahul Basu (Guest Author) || Edited by : Bharat Nayak || April 2nd, 2019

If mining destroys the environment, the minerals are sold and the mineral stock depleted, what is there for future generations? The National Mineral Policy 2019 lays a systematic foundation for the implementation of the Intergenerational Equity Principle. While rooted in the Constitution, some steps need to be taken quickly to reduce uncertainty to the mining industry.

How do we implement intergenerational equity? The Supreme Court has faced this question first in the Bellary iron ore scam, next in the Goa iron ore scam and later in the Odisha iron ore scam. In its judgment in the Odisha mining case (Common Cause vs Union of India & Others, WP(c) 114 of 2014), the Supreme Court of India discussed the Intergenerational Equity Principle in the context of a demand for a future generations fund and a cap on extraction and ordered a review of the National Mineral Policy 2008. Goa Foundation, the petitioner in the Goa mining cases, has advocated a holistic approach to the implementation of the intergenerational equity principle in mining. Read more

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