Betrayal via bamboo

In April this year, Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra made history. One of its villages became the country’s first to win the right to sell and harvest bamboo. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh handed over transit pass books to residents of Mendha Lekha village, allowing them to exercise community forest rights over bamboo guaranteed in the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. But for the rest of the villages bamboo is still a distant dream.