The disastrous flash floods in Uttarkhand in June 2013 turned the spotlight on a frontier region in the Western Himalayas, at least for a time. Was it a cloud burst or heavy rainfall? Could it have been predicted and prevented? Did the meteorological department mess up or was the problem the state government’s slow response? […]
On the 30th of April 2020, a large portion of a steep mountain in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh slipped down to village Pangi destroying apple orchards and killing one Nepali migrant worker. This area in the high Himalayas, falling in the Satluj Valley, which is known for its geological and ecological vulnerability, is also […]
We are currently under the grip of a pandemic by the name of COVID-19 that has brought life to a standstill as we know it. This world-wide public health crisis has affected the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, and governments have been forced to take stern measures to tackle the contagion in the […]
Press Note 4 March 2020: Forest-Land-Rivers and Tribal Identity: A two-day dialogue: People’s organisations from Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur call for tribal unity About 25 representatives of people’s organisations from Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur concluded a two-day dialogue on ‘Forest-Land-Rivers and Tribal Identity’ in Palampur on 3rd March 2020. The meeting which focused on the issues of […]
Written by Aditi Vajpeyi & Vaishnavi Rathore Published on Economic and Political Weekly The emergence of the Forest Rights Act reasserted the vitality of the role people play in conservation and management of natural resources and carving out legal channels for recognition of their forest rights. But, in Himachal Pradesh, the FRA suffers at the […]
People from Kinnaur staged a protest at Reckong Peo today seeking speedy implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in the tribal areas of the state and to draw the attention of the government towards the growing threat to the ecology. The protesting members of the Zila Van Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti Kinnaur were joined by […]
In a travesty of the Forest Rights Act set up to protect indigenous communities, members of the Lippa tribal village in Himachal Pradesh are being denied individual forest rights. Text by Manshi Asher Photographs by Sumit Mahar Himachal Pradesh, a State where two-thirds of the landscape is categorised as forest and 90 per cent of […]
A Himalayan village’s struggle to assert its forest rights Manshi Asher 01 September 2019 Karam Sain led the way through the narrow paths of the temperate forest near the tribal village of Lippa, located in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The cool May air was filled with the scent of dried chilgoza pine cones, […]
To The Chairperson Environmental Appraisal Committee Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change [IA-I Division] New Delhi Date: 24th January, 2019 Subject: Submission for the EAC’s upcoming discussion on the draft report of Satluj river basin’s Cumulative Impact Assessment and Carrying Capacity Study Respected Sir As the EAC schedules on discussing the draft report of […]
वन अधिकार कानून देश में लागू हुए एक दशक से ज्यादा हो गया पर आज भी इस कानून को सरकारें ढंग से लागू नहीं कर रहीं हैं. एक तरफ हिमाचल जैसे राज्य हैं जहां इसका क्रियान्वयन बहुत धीमी गति से चल रहा है तो कई ऐसे राज्य हैं जहां लाखों दावे भरे गए हैं परन्तु […]