Jay Mazoomdaar

The old guard has the record but not the time to stage a comeback; the skipper’s case is different

The TMC seems to have a workable strategy for success without the Congress

A desperate Bengal ousted the Left, seeking ‘poribarton’. Six months on, Mamata Banerjee is as vocal as she was while lavishing poll promises, yet ‘change’ looks elusive as ever. So, what’s holding back poribarton?

Dissent is a casualty at the Anna show where his rainbow coalition of supporters eats, drinks and makes protest before the camera

Snow leopards share a particularly punishing habitat with people in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, with resources scarce and vegetation sparse. The conventional conservation model of separating wild animals and people simply does not work here. India’s green establishment is showing signs of accepting this reality, if only grudgingly

The environment ministry’s new draft guidelines have corrected some anomalies after Open’s investigation flagged key issues plaguing the relocation of 40,000 families from core tiger forests.

Of the total 60,000 claims filed under the Forest Rights Act in Assam, nearly 30,000 came from a single district. Little wonder, then, that the administration controls less than a third of Sonitpur’s forests. While no political party minds legalising this mass encroachment in the Bodo heartland, the fate of the wilderness hangs by a 2009 High Court order.

The Posco project in Odisha is not just about violation of human rights or an ecological disaster. It is a brazen example of how the country’s high and mighty are shifting goalposts to favour a powerful foreign multinational corporation

The Left Front has been the biggest advocate of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), but its own former rule in home state West Bengal saw its worst abuse as well. Forest villagers dependent on tea garden jobs are indifferent to the Act. Families inside the Buxa tiger reserve are keen to surrender their rights for Rs 10 lakh each. But away from tea gardens and outside the tiger reserve, forest communities have bigger demands than the FRA allows. And a desperate forest department twists the Act to retain control.

The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka has been notified as a tiger reserve. While this tag will fetch extra conservation funds for the sanctuary, it threatens to displace Soliga tribals from their ancestral habitat. New generations of Soligas may not be content with their forefathers’ way of life, but this forest will lose its soul without them. And India will lose one of its best opportunities to try out a model of coexistence between wildlife and eco-sensitive people