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Future of the Forest - (Cornell Land: New Perspectives on Territory, Development, and Environment) by Anand P Vaidya
About this item
Highlights
- Future of the Forest is the story of legal transformations of forests across India through collective action.
- About the Author: Anand P. Vaidya is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Reed College.
- 204 Pages
- Political Science, Human Rights
- Series Name: Cornell Land: New Perspectives on Territory, Development, and Environment
Description
About the Book
"Future of the Forest is a historical and ethnographic account of the life of India's 2006 Forest Rights Act. The book follows the law from the movements that pushed for its passage to a North Indian forest village, showing how the law's meaning was shaped through ongoing collective action"--Book Synopsis
Future of the Forest is the story of legal transformations of forests across India through collective action. Since the nineteenth century, Indian forest dwellers have been unable to enforce their claims to the land on which they live or the products of it that they use. But at the turn of the twenty-first century, a new national movement led to the passage of the Forest Rights Act, a landmark law that recognizes the tenure and use rights of India's millions of landless forest dwellers.
Anand P. Vaidya tracks the Forest Rights Act from the movements that pushed for its passage to its drafting--and the many revisions it underwent to satisfy coalitions of local peoples, conservationists, and a wide spectrum of political parties and movements--and finally to its impact on two neighboring villages in central India's forest belt. The forests have seen a long history of political authority enacted to the benefit of the powerful; Future of the Forest follows the work of activists and forest dwellers who turned to the law to shift this balance of power.
About the Author
Anand P. Vaidya is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Reed College.