Creation and subsequent expansion of Protected Area (PA) network has often deprived local people of their usufruct rights and displaced communities from their traditional lands. This 'isolationist' approach has resulted in severe conflicts between local people and PA authorities.

Similipal Biosphere Reserve of northern Orissa is one among the seven such reserves of India that form a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The overall objective of the Biosphere Reserve programme was to deal with one of the most important questions of reconciling conservation of biodiversity, quest for economic and social development, and maintenance of associated cultural values.

The continued growth of human populations and of per capita consumption have resulted in unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s biological diversity, exacerbated by climate change, ocean acidification, and other anthropogenic environmental impacts.

Local communities have always found ingenious ways to overcome adverse conditions like floods, which affect not only farming but also lives and livelihoods. Over centuries, people have evolved ways and means to adapt to this natural phenomenon and have learnt to live with flooding situations.

This article reports findings from a survey of anganwadis, undertaken in the tribal region of Gujarat. It was found that services were poorer in the more backward and distant hilly areas than in the plain areas of the region. The coverage of population by anganwadis was not uniform and was disproportionately divided even within the same village.

Community participation emerged as the defining principle of forest policies all over the world in the closing decades of the last century. In India, this came about after the Indian forest policies went through different stages from largely commercial-centric to a community-oriented approach.