This is a report of the national level public hearing on community forest rights. The Public Hearing was organised by CFR-LA and AJAM along with other people’s networks and forums on the 14th of December 2013 at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi.

Goa Minister for Forests Alina Saldanha has criticised the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), accusing it of trying to force the recommendations of the K.

People of Chakkittapara say they have lived as one with nature, seek people’s report

“If they touch us, it will be another Jallianwala Bagh here,” Chakkittapara grama panchayat president K. Sunil shouts over the anxious din of a grama sabha held at Muthukad Lower Primary School on the slopes of the Western Ghats on Wednesday.

Activists Point Out Loopholes

The expert appraisal committee of ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) gave environmental clearance to the Rs 2,000 crore Aranmula international airport, ignoring key issues such as reclamation of paddy fields, land acquisition, social and cultural disruption of people in an entire locality. Aranumula residents point out that this is one project which has not a got a single supporter from Aranmula.

Madhav Gadgil, chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), has said that his report is far from “dead” and the unrest in the State is an aftermath of the “sabotage of democracy” cau

Terms environment ministry’s memorandum unconstitutional.

No government could implement projects such as the proposed airport at Aranmula disregarding public sentiments against it, especially in aspects of nature conservation, food security and socio-huma

The extremely fragile Western Ghats region is highly prone to natural calamities and chances of an Uttarakhand-like tragedy in the region cannot be ruled out if scientific conservation initiatives are not being implemented at the earliest, says a leading environmentalist.

Significantly, the foreboding has come at a time when the State is in a dilemma over implementing the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report drawn up by noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil.

The Western Ghats People’s Forum has demanded that grama sabhas be convened in all 123 villages in the State that have been included in the list of ecologically sensitive areas by the Kasturirangan

The Environment and Forests Ministry will soon take the final call on Vedanta’s mining of Niyamgiri hills, with the Odisha government having sent the gram sabha resolutions to the Centre for a deci

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