After a long battle with the Forest Department, this village in a remote, Naxal-affected part of the state on Thursday became the first village in the country to become eligible to own, cut, use and sell bamboo

Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh, along with Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, on Wednesday launched a programme giving tribals right to harvest bamboo as a forest produce in a tribal village here.

Ramesh and Chavan handed over transit passes to tribals of Lekha Mendha village thus according them the right of harvesting and managing bamboo as a forest produce.

Mendha Lekha village in Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra will become the first in the country to get the right to harvest and sell bamboo after 150 years. The right to harvest and sell bamboo was taken away by the British government over 150 years ago under the Indian Forest Act. Since then bamboo has been under the control of government.

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, who is all set to flag off harvesting of bamboo by villagers under the new Forest Rights Act, is facing severe embarrassment from the Maharashtra government which has threatened to arrest those who do so.

Ramesh is all set to kick off harvesting of bamboo by the villagers of Mendha Lekha in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli village on Wednesday.

New Delhi: The forest bureaucracy has taken on environment minister Jairam Ramesh and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to defend its turf.

The Environment Ministry is moving ahead with its efforts to ensure a minimum support price for minor forest produce such as bamboo and tendu leaves.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has reiterated his ministry

BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly amended the Orissa Forest Act, 1972, and raised the offence compounding ceiling to Rs 5,000, up from Rs 100.

The Act empowered forest officers to compound certain offences and stipulated that no offence shall be compounded if the market value of the forest produce involved exceeded Rs 100.

With market price of forest produce going up manifold over the last few years

MUMBAI: Alphonso, the king of mangoes, has fallen victim to climate change. The state government's preliminary estimate is that nearly 80% of the mango crop has been destroyed, said agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

"The trees flowered far in excess of everyone's expectations . The devastation has taken us by surprise.

The impending ease of restrictions on bamboo will be a dream come true for crores of people belonging to forest dwelling communities, artisans and crasftsmen in the country for whom it is a traditional source of subsistence.

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh communicated a set of guidelines to Chief Minister N.

The Planning Commission is pushing for fixing of a minimum support price (MSP) for forest products, including bamboo, as an effective anti-naxal strategy, hoping that increased income levels would address at least part of the disenchantment prevalent among the tribal communities.

As of now, the central government has fixed MSPs only for the main agricultural crops and there has been a long-pend