It is a little known fact that in roughly a fifth of our country

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa's 11,000-odd Joint Forest Management (JFM) committees, vested with the responsibility of protection of forests through a community-based approach, may soon cease to exist.

If these bodies are not made compliant to Forest Rights Act (FRA) that is.

Since the Forest Rights Act, 2006 gives gram sabhas the ultimate power to settle tenurial rights of community forest resources

Seventy-five-year-old Tukaram Vithal Gholap has walked for over three days from his village in Murbad (Thane district) to demand land rights.

Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti organised a rally on Sunday to renew its opposition to the $12 billion project

For Posco India, trouble for its proposed 12 million tonne steel project seems to be far from over.

Several tribals have moved out of Nagarhole National Park, accepting the govt

While the Maharashtra government contends that there is a large number of false claims under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006, Adivasis feel they have been short-changed by the State, which has denied legitimate claims. Thousands of Adivasis are marching to Mumbai from all parts of the Maharashtra to highlight the lacunae in the system.

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has prepared a detailed set of draft rules for identifying critical wildlife habitats or areas within national parks and sanctuaries that would be free of human presence.

The government has collected Rs 3,124 crore under the Clean Energy Fund this year through an imposition of cess on coal, but it is yet to decide how and when to invest the money.

A senior finance ministry official said an inter-ministerial committee will be approving schemes to be funded through the corpus.

In the recent meeting of the apex National Tiger Conservation Authority, members pointed out seven specific instances where Forest Rights Act has been violated in an attempt to hastily declare an area free of people. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said he would investigate each claim and allegation of violation of FRA. TOI highlights four such reserves.