Brinda leads walkout over delay in Forest Act rules

Special Correspondent “Government should come clean on the issue” Rules not notified even after vetting by Law Ministry “This is subversion of Parliament’s will” NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha once again witnessed noisy scenes and a subsequent walkout by Communist Party of India (Marxist) members led by Brinda Karat over the delay in notifying rules for the Forest Rights Act. The law was passed by Parliament more than a year ago. Reacting sharply to Minister of State for Environment and Forests S. Regupathy’s reply on the issue of protecting the rights of forest-dwellers, Ms. Karat pointed out that his Ministry was not competent to give a reply in the matter, which pertained to the Tribal Affairs Ministry. “How can the government implement an Act without notification of the rules,” she asked........................ full news at: http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/30/stories/2007113055491500.htm

Forest Act won't come into force before Jan

30 Nov 2007, 0225 hrs IST,Nitin Sethi,TNN NEW DELHI: The intervention of 10 Janpath in the roll-out of the Forest Rights Act will see the law come into force not before January 2008. The window till then will be utilised to notify tiger reserves as "critical wildlife habitats" so that they not only remain protected zones, but also allow fairly rapid relocation of forest dwellers. The solution arrived at aims at ensuring that relocation from tiger reserves proceeds under the existing laws — the habitats will also be notified under the Wildlife Protection Act — and not under the more rigorous Forest Rights Act. This would make it ............................................... full news at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Forest_Act_wont_come_into_force_before_Jan/articleshow/2583343.cms

Supreme Court bars British company from mining sacred hills

29 November 2007 UK company Vedanta Resources Plc has been banned from mining bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, India India’s Supreme Court has surprised and delighted the Dongria Kond tribe by barring the UK company Vedanta Resources Plc from mining bauxite in the sacred Niyamgiri hills in Orissa, eastern India. The decision, announced on 23 November, offered the tribe a temporary reprieve, ordering the company’s Indian unit, Sterlite Industries, to come back with a new proposal for the project. For the time being the Dongria Kond’s sacred hills are safe from....................................... full news at: http://www.survival-international.org/news/2696

CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

17:39 IST RAJYA SABHA The steps that have been taken to prepare community knowledge registers under the National Programme for promoting conservation of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge are as follows: (i) A standard format for Community Knowledge Register has been prepared. (ii) The facilitating agencies have been oriented towards the role of the Community Knowledge Register in protecting community knowledge of medicinal plants as per the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. (iii) The Community Knowledge Register is prepared through the involvement and participation of the local healers and with their prior informed consent. (iv) The Community Knowledge Register thus prepared is maintained by the local community, and is not given to the facilitating agency. Under the National Programme for promoting conservation of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge, the facilitating agencies at the local level involved in preparation and updating such a register include: (i) Swami Ramananda Tirtha Regional Institute, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (ii) Rural Communes, Mumbai, Maharashtra (iii) SAMBANDH, Bhubaneswar, Orissa (iv) Jagran Jan Vikas Samithi, Udaipur, Rajasthan (v) Tagore Society for Rural Development, Kolkata, West Bengal Preparation of registers on traditional knowledge of local people is a measure towards protection of their knowledge from its unauthorized use without sharing of benefits arising from such use. The Biological Diversity Act provides for sharing of benefits arising out of the use of such knowledge with the holders of the knowledge. This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Shri Namo Narayan Meena in a written reply to question in the Rajya Sabha today. http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33463

Forest rights - and why the new law needs to be implemented

Posted : Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:10:04 GMT Author : Shankar Gopalakrishnan Category : India (World) Like a bad penny that never stops coming back, the issue of forest rights is in the news again. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, has returned to the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Opponents slam it as the 'most dangerous act of any Indian government since 1947', handing out 'forest for votes' and 'privatizing a national resource.'A handful of conservationists issue dire warnings to the government, politicians and reporters about the terrible disaster that will ensue from implementing this law. Meanwhile, this Act has become the first legislation in India's history to be attacked through a TV ad campaign.In all this sound and fury, the real issues around this Act have mostly been lost. For, in reality, this Act has nothing to do with 'handing out' land to anyone, nor is it a 'welfare scheme' for tribals. It is a law intended to deal with one very basic problem: what are called 'forests' in Indian law, presumed by many to be vast stretches of 'pristine wilderness,' are nothing of the kind. Literally, millions of people live inside the areas described in law as forest. The reason why is a story in itself.India's forest and wildlife laws are built around a model of excluding people. Created to ease timber extraction, the Colonial Forest Act (later changed to Indian Forest Act) aimed to bring all forests under the centralised control of the forest department and to take over the lands and rights of people who live there. This was initially justified as necessary for 'scientific management' for higher timber yields; then, post-Independence, for the nation's industrial requirements; and finally for conservation. Whatever the justification, the policy has remained the same.Thus, in law, at the time of declaring a 'forest', a settlement officer is supposed to survey and 'settle' the rights of people................................................................. full story at: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/151645.html

Gujarat opposes move to send Gir lions to MP

1 Dec 2007, 0349 hrs IST,Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN NEW DELHI: The Centre's grand plan to relocate some of the Asiatic lions from their only home at Gir forest in Gujarat to the forests of Madhya Pradesh has run into serious opposition from the Narendra Modi government. The plan, to save the lions from a disaster that could wipe them out in one go, involved relocating five of them from Gir to a 300 sqkm forest at Kunopalpur in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. As many as 30 villages falling within the identified area were relocated in 2003, but the plan mooted by the Wildlife Institute of India and accepted by the Centre is still hanging fire. A petition filed by Bio-diversity Conservation Trust of India through counsel Ritwick Datta alleged that the main reason for the stalling of the plan was the U-turn by....................................... full news at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Gujarat_opposes_move_to_send_Gir_lions_to_MP/articleshow/2586606.cms

Tigers' fate is still uncertain

By Laura Bly, USA TODAY NEW DELHI — One of the most riveting images in the office of award-winning photographer and lifelong tiger advocate Belinda Wright isn't of the charismatic feline itself, but of its aftermath. Tibetan men are draped in the gleaming pelts — worth nearly $10,000 each on the black market — of a creature wildlife experts worry may be on its last legs. The good news, notes Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, is that sales and display of tiger skins among Tibetans have dropped in response to a public awareness campaign by the Dalai Lama, the World Wildlife Fund and others. At the same time, however, an illegal demand for tiger bones and other body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine has prompted an expansion of tiger farming in China, where there's commercial lobbying to lift a domestic trade ban on tiger parts.......................................................................................................... full story at: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-11-29-tiger-side_N.htm