A recent workshop on people's management of the Rajaji National Park brought out in full fury the debate whether the local communities are wiser managers of forests or the menace threatening them. While the environment and forests minister, RAJESH PILOT,

IT'S a bit less than a conspiracy, a bit more than a fetish. Five international organisations have made forest conservation their overriding priority. The gigantic United Nations bureaucracy based in

IN THE face of mounting public criticism of the Union ministry of environment and forests' draft Forest Bill, environment minister Kamal Nath's quick sidestep to dismiss the document as a "non-paper"

OVER the past decade, "social forestry" has become a catchword among the policymakers, environmentalists and development professionals. However, it has not made much headway in becoming a people's