Responses of hornbills and Ducula pigeons to hunting and disturbances to their habitats may help us understand the implications for the regeneration of their dependent tropical forest trees.

The large dams being built on the rivers of the eastern Himalayas have become highly controversial. The hydropower that north-east India is expected to produce is meant almost entirely for use elsewhere. That these dams will be exclusively hydropower and not multipurpose dams and that there will be a great unevenness in the distribution of potential gains and losses - and of vulnerability to risks - accounts for a serious legitimacy deficit in India's ambitious hydropower development plans in the region.

‘Jhum kheti’, commonly known as slashand-burn or shifting cultivation, is the most predominant farming system practised by the hilly communities of North East (NE) India, where the jhumias transform forests into rural landscapes. This farming system still persists and plays an important role in providing subsistence livelihoods to at least 300–500 million people worldwide, which is intricately linked to socio-cultural, ecological and economic aspects of the ethnic hill communities. (Correspondence) .