ALTERNATIVES
Economic development and modernity have transformed livelihoods into deadlihoods. They are wiping out millennia-old livelihoods that were ways of life, with no sharp division between work and leisure; replacing them with dreary assembly line jobs where we wait desperately for holidays… Less visible is the pauperisation of those deprived of natural resources they depended on….
Read More about Ashish Kothari: Livelihoods vs. Deadlihoods
Conflict/Dispossession
Nitin Sethi reports: The government has made public its draft National Forest Policy, to replace the existing one crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy brings new focus to plantations, growing trees outside forest lands and wood industry….
Read More about Draft National Forest Policy sets up another battle over Forest Rights Act
Representational pic
Development/Growth
Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava reports: The National Board of Wildlife, the highest advisory body to the government on wildlife issues, has cleared more industrial projects in and around wildlife habitats in past two years of NDA rule than what its predecessor UPA-II did in its entire tenure of five years, shows the data compiled by CSE….
Read More about NDA cleared more projects in wildlife habitats in 2 yrs than UPA did in 5 yrs
CLIMATE CRISIS
Two years of NDA government have meant a mixed bag for environmental governance in India, according to a performance review by the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment, While there was commendable progress on pollution control and waste management, forest governance took on a more industry-centric approach and the Paris Agreement was a missed opportunity….
Read More about Report card: Environmental governance under NDA government
Elephants raiding a banana plantation near Bannerghatta, Karnataka
Nishanth Srinivasaiah
Conflict/Dispossession
The Centre has endorsed various states’ move to list wild animals – elephants in Bengal, monkeys in Uttarakhand, peacocks in Goa and nilgai in Bihar – as ‘vermin’, allowing them to be culled. With human-animal conflict once again in under the lens, we present a selection of articles that examine both sides of the story….
Read More about Debate: Is the ongoing culling of wild animals necessary?
Representative pic
Conserve/Resist
EcoWatch reports: Norway has become the first country to ban deforestation. The Norwegian Parliament pledged May 26 that the government’s public procurement policy will be deforestation-free. Any product that contributes to deforestation won’t be used in the Scandinavian country. Norway’s action plan also includes a requires the government to exercise due care in biodiversity protection….
Read More about Norway becomes world’s first country to ban deforestation
ECOCIDE/EXTINCTION
Colin Todhunter writes: Powerful corporations hold sway over a globalised system of food and agriculture from seed to plate. The narrative about farming has been shaped to benefit this handful of influential corporations. With major mergers within the agribusiness sector in the pipeline, power will be further consolidated and the situation is likely to worsen….
Read More about From the Green Revolution to GMOs: Living in the shadow of global agribusiness
Dongria Kondh boy Kalia stands in front of the Niyamgiri hill range
Lewis Davids/Survival
Conflict/Dispossession
Susmita Mukherjee writes: The Supreme Court has scrapped a petition filed, yet again by the Odisha Mining Corporation, challenging the resolutions of the Gram Sabhas of Niyamgiri Hills. For ten years, the Dongaria Kondhs have been looking beyond the education facilities being offered to them by Vedanta and continue their struggle to protect their land….
Read More about For 10 Years, Niyamgiri’s adivasis have resisted a takeover of their land by the government and Vedanta
ALTERNATIVES
India is reeling under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, and shredding the social fabric in affected areas. In this concluding part of our series on combating drought, we present examples where traditional methods for water harvesting have been successfully put to use by communities to drought-proof themselves….
Read More about Series: Combating drought – 3: Traditional methods to the rescue
Conflict/Dispossession
Ashish Kothari writes: Unlike the representative form that most countries have adopted, a series of recent events point more to a direct form in which people on the ground have the primary power of decision-making. From Chhattisgarh to Odisha, people’s movements against large development projects have brought out the real power of democracy in India….
Read More about Recent victories by people’s movements show democracy is thriving
ALTERNATIVES
As India reels under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, it’s time to ask whether the present situation could’ve been avoided. And yet, here are examples from across India where, armed with little more than determination and imagination, ordinary people have turned things around to create little oases….
Read More about Series: Combating drought – 2: Success stories
Development/Growth
Nachiket Kelkar writes: This Bill plans to convert 106 rivers and creeks across India into waterway canals, purportedly for ‘eco-friendly transport’ of cargo, coal, industrial raw materials, and tourism. Unfortunately there is no debate on the high ecological and social risks the NWB poses to riverine biodiversity and local resources through such irreversible engineering controls….
Read More about National Waterways Bill: Digging our rivers’ graves?
Digests/Specials
As India reels under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, it’s time to ask whether the present situation could’ve been avoided. As many expert voices presented here point out, it’s not the weather alone that creates a drought, but bad planning and an often corrupt and apathetic administration….
Read More about Series: Combating drought – 1: What the experts sayDevelopment/Growth
In the past, water scarcity was a constraint that inspired communities to conserve water, devising locally appropriate technologies to share resources. Rajasthan’s baolis and Tamil Nadu’s eris are just two of the many traditional water harvesting systems that survive to this day. However, they have been sidelined by spectacular state projects such as large dams….
Read More about Amita Baviskar: The drought is no longer a natural disaster
CLIMATE CRISIS
Fossil fuel divestment activist Kate Aronoff writes: A growing, green industry born into a hostile labor climate is unlikely to produce steady and well-paying jobs without a fight — not to mention a cross-movement plan beyond shutting down individual infrastructure projects. Breaking Free from fossil fuels can also mean breaking into a more sustainable economy….
Read More about The climate movement and the “Jobs vs. Environment” DebateConflict/Dispossession
Activist, filmmaker and writer Debaranjan Sarangi, actively involved in the struggle of adivasis in Odisha’s Kashipur to protect their lands from bauxite mining, was arrested on March 18, 2016 on the basis of a 2005 case. In this interview with Countercurrents.org following his release on bail, he describes his experiences and the present situation in Odisha….
Read More about Anti-mining activist Deba Ranjan Sarangi on the alarming situation in Odisha
Pratham Books
ALTERNATIVES
The full text of a recent talk given by prominent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010. It tries to explore the significant issue of when and why people turn against conservation….
Read More about Development is for the people: A talk by Madhav GadgilALTERNATIVES
Chetan Raut, founder of the intriguingly named startup Cowism, aims to empower distressed Maharashtra farmers to become self-reliant and financially independent by integrating commercially useful assets like native cattle into farming practices to improve soil fertility, lower input costs, and raise profits. “Invariably, the solutions to our problems lie right under our noses,” says Chetan….
Read More about Video: Cowism! How an engineer is transforming Indian agriculture
Frans Lanting
Conflict/Dispossession
Bill Laurance writes: Some 25 million km of new paved roads, thousands of dams, and hundreds of thousands of new mining, oil and gas projects, are being planned, roughly 90% of them in developing nations. Their environmental impacts could easily dwarf climate change as thousands of projects penetrate into the world’s last surviving wild areas….
Read More about An infrastructure tsunami is being unleashed on the environment in the name of ‘development’Conflict/Dispossession
Since its formation Chhattisgarh has become the new destination of domestic and foreign investment. Sunil Kumar’s award-winning documentary Daan Se Raakh (Rice Bowl to Ashtray) captures displacement and industrialization in Chhattisgarh. It critically investigates the impact of unbridled industrialization, privatization of water, and acquisition of agricultural land on the life and livelihoods of the rural population….
Read More about Video: Rice Bowl to Ashtray – Documentary on industrialisation and displacement in Chhattisgarh
