As the state’s situation worsens, the only two choices in front of the Himachali people will be mass agitation or mass exodus. Himachal Pradesh is located in the region of the world considered to be the water tower of the Indian subcontinent. But what happens when the high mountains – repositories of snow and thus […]
10 insights on the political ecology of Himachal today Manshi Asher and Prakash Bhandari The morning ritual of eagerly scanning the Himachal edition of The Tribune (the only English paper in print that has meaty coverage from the region) has never been so rewarding, offering in one glance, deep clarity on what is going on […]
17/4/2018 Shimla Himachal Van Adhikar Manch is one of the 150 signatories of the submission made to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change raising objections to the serious flaws in the Draft National Forest Policy 2018. The MoEFCC came out with the draft last month, for which they had comments and suggestions from concerned citizens […]
To address historical injustice faced by the forest-dependent communities in India, UPA government had passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of) Forest Rights Act in 2006. But the Congress, at least in Himachal, has failed to make use of this legislation to provide relief to tribal population. In fact, Himachal is […]
The residents of Gunehar village in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district are attempting to use the Forest Rights Act to challenge the state Forest Department’s decision to hand over two hectares of local forest land to the Wildlife Department to construct an office complex. At the end of December, the Gunehar panchayat filed a complaint with […]
The members of the Himachal Van Adhikar Manch, a state level forum of social organisations advocating for implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 met in Shimla today to discuss the issues of landholders with forest land occupations facing the threat of eviction in the state. Members of the manch plan to meet the High […]
Press note 3rd January: Forest Rights Committees lead the way on FRA claim filing process in Himachal even as government unresponsive 4 Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) of Gram Panchayat Kandral in Baijnath submitted their Individual and community claims under Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA) to the SDM today. The FRCs carried out a rigorous verification […]
The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh has filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the consent powers of tribals under the Forest Rights Act. The move could take the sheen off the Congress central leadership’s recent attempts to burnish its pro-tribal credentials in and outside the Parliament. A petition by Himachal government’s power corporation […]
Seven years after the Centre’s approval, the forest lands in Himachal Pradesh can now be used for developmental works like building schools or community centre on fulfilling certain conditions. “Under Forest Rights Act 2006 section 3(2), Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, has agreed that for 13 developmental acts the District Forest Officer of the area can allow the use […]
Recently the Forest Department started the drive to evict Schedule Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers from forest land under the garb of HP High court order and particularly in Forest Division Banjar, Kullu and Parvati. Huge number of them belongs to Schedule Castes (SC) and had been evicted or had been ordered to evict […]