Dr. VK Bahuguna

 Donald Trump’s trade Brouhaha- where is Trump heading?  By: VK Bahuguna (The writer is a former Director-General and Chancellor in Environment Ministry and Chairman of Centre for Policy Research. He is a policy analyst and columnist) All over the world specially the many people in India felt happy and reassured after Donald Trump won his second term as US President and took office in January 2025. A large number of people felt that Democrats have been patronizing the destabilizing forces like the so called ‘Deep State’ which under the guidance of CIA actively promotes anti-India forces, supports Pakistan, support disruption in countries not following American dictates. Many people and media specially blamed the deep state for removing the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government in Dhaka when she refused to allow US base in St Martin Island and trying to creating disruption during 2024 General elections in India. The narrative may or may not be true but if there’s an iota of...

 Looming water Crisis in India By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is Chairman of Centre for Resource Management and Environment and former IFS officer) Water is the essential for all living creatures to keep them alive. Though 71% of earth’s area is covered by water in oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and other water bodies which constitute 361 million square kilometers. Oceans are the large continuous bodies of salt water and cover a significant portion of earth surface whereas seas are smaller and covered by land and are in daily use by the humans for their livelihoods. However, the fresh water covers only 2.5 % of the earth surface and 98.8% of it is locked in ice and ground water and only 0.3 % is available in rivers, lakes and atmosphere. With the rising threat of climate change all over the world and with rising population pressure and consequent depletion of life sustaining resources like forests, clean air and soil the water availability is going to determine the future of continuat...

 Saving the King Asiatic Lion: Gujarat leads India’s wildlife revival By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is former Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India)  Lion with its majestic looks in Manes and elan and Tiger with its grace and gorgeous persona have made the wild world awe-inspiring and beautiful and India is fortunate to have them both thanks to our culture and nature loving people. The Gujarat Forest Department recently announced the results of 16th Lion census carried out earlier this month in May 2025. The population of Lions in last five years jumped from 674 in 2020 to 891 now. It is an incredible increase of 32%. Out of this 384 are in Gir National Park, Gir and Panis Sanctuary in Sasangir spread over 1410 sq. km area (258.7 sq. km in National Park and 1051.6 sq. km in Sanctuary). The rest 340 almost 44% Lions now live outside the Gir protective area network. The success of Tiger, Lion and elephant is a remarkable...

 Operation Sindoor to redefine the geopolitics of counterterrorism  (By: Dr VK Bahuguna) (The writer is former Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) Though the seeds of democracy were sown in ancient Greek and Indian Panchayats systems, the modern democracy, freedom and liberty, however, developed between the late seventeen and eighteenth century and matured with the American (during April 1775 to September 1783) and French revolutions (during May 1789 to November 1799). Thereafter, gradually the idea of democracy and free world evolved was adopted by the world by and large. But the human desire to usurp power and control over other societies due to expansionist mindset and economic interests ultimately gave rise to colonialism during last two centuries which though ended in most parts of the world after the Second World War ended in 1945; still aggressively yet in a subtle manner manifests itself in the form of neo-colonialism by controll...

 Challenges India faces in countering national security and climatic disasters By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is Chairman of Centre for Resource Management and Environment) India because of its varied geography, location, geological and climatic conditions coupled with its ‘reactive approach’ in dealing with things is prone to natural and other disasters. Time and again the national disaster response have not been at all commensurate with the desired level of preparedness as well as, technology and swift action. Our administrative system takes action and rise from slumber only when disasters happens. Every year time and again seasonal disasters occur and several lives are lost as also huge loss of property and life sustaining resources. The governance for disaster management though during last few years have improved after the creation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) but it awfully falls short of the level of international standards. Take for example the recent Pah...

 Will Kancha Gachibowli intervention by the Supreme Court herald a new era in Forest Conservation ? By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is former Director-General & Chancellor of ICFRE, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) The Supreme Court of India on 12th December 1996 in its epoch-making order on TN Godavarman Thirumullapad versus Union of India and others had set into motion a marvelous judicial intervention on forest conservation in the country and rest is the history of innumerable number of orders in correcting the several wrong decisions affecting forest and wildlife conservation in the country. After 29 years of experience of judicial intervention in yet another suo motu intervention on 3rd April 2025, thanks to the students of the Hyderabad University and media the Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih helped by Senior Advocate K Parmeshwar (the amicus curiae, in the TN Godavarman forest cases, who alerted the court to m...

 Polity of Delimitation of Constituencies By: (Dr VK Bahuguna) (Former IFS officer and Chairman Centre for Resource Management and Environment) The democratic nations are governed by the public representatives who are elected by the public through universal franchise and, India is one of the biggest democratic countries in the world with a population of 142 crore people. The Article 82 of the constitution lays down the procedure of delimitation of constituencies for determining the number of Lok Sabha (House of People) seats and similarly Article 170 lays down the provisions of determining the strength of state assemblies. This process empowers the Parliament to constitute a Delimitation Commission after passing the Delimitation Act after every census. The Delimitation Commission is headed by a Supreme Court Judge and its job is to redraw the boundaries and numbers of constituencies based on ‘one citizen, one voter with one value’ and works on the principle of equity while distribu...

 Lessons from Implementation of Supreme Court monitored Amrapali Housing Projects  By: Dr VK Bahuguna (Formerly:  Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Govt of India and Principal Secretary Government of Tripura) In a country like ours the biggest aspirations of a middle class family is to own a house or a dwelling unit for which they sacrifice their present and save money to fulfil their dream.  With the rapid urbanizations now compared with 1950 when only 17 % of the population of India was living in cities now in 2024 more than 35% of population is living in urban areas. There has been a big push for the housing real estate business in the country during last 20 to 25 years. The housing societies mushroomed with the creation of urban local bodies in most of the districts in states like NOIDA authority in NCR and similar agencies in Gurgaon and Faridabad etc. These agencies and authorities were purported to be the harbinger of...

 Innovations for Urban landscape Management- Tripura shows the way By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is former Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change)  About 35 % of India’s population lives in urban areas and still growing rapidly. As the population of cities is ever increasing with lot of garbage and waste found all around in most cities, the sustainable management of urban area landscapes is very crucial for better civic amenities, ambience and dealing with adapting to environmental issues like air pollution, heat waves, and flooding, while also improving quality of life through green spaces, better public areas for entertainment and relaxation and promoting physical activity and mental well-being among residents; all while managing waste disposal and addressing the challenges of a densely populated urban environment; the situation is exacerbated during extreme temperatures in summer. Tourist attractions are essential elements of progress th...

 Agar wood tree- the Green Gold for farmers By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is former Director-General of ICFRE and Chancellor FRI Deemed University, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) The Agar tree known scientifically as Aquilaria malaccensis in India is found primarily in North-Eastern states of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunanchal Pradesh. The capital city of Agartala was once full of Agarwood trees and hence named after it by the Tripura Royal family. Myanmar, Sumatra, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, and the Philippines. It is a critically endangered tree species due its heavy demand and illegal trade and is in the Red list of International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are 15 crore Agarwood trees in India and the tree species is making ripple in Tripura due to proactive actions taken by the state government on its promotion and value addition and providing a platform for its conservation and promotion on private lands. ...

 Deciphering the serious concerns in State of Forests Report 2023 By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is former Director-General of ICFRE in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has a few weeks ago released its 2023 state of forest report which apparently shows an increasing trend in forest and tree cover of the country. The current assessment has shown a very meagre increase in forest cover by 156.41 sq km compared to past assessment of 2021. However, the total forest and tree cover of the country has increased by 1445.81 sq km compared to the last assessment of 2021. The results are good to show to the nation that its forest machinery is doing a good job in maintaining and also increasing the resources it is managing and controlling. This also is a good political tool in the hands of Central government to show its success is conserving the forest resources and the overall environment. However, as the saying goes ‘the proof of the pud...

   What the aspiring leaders of India can learn from Dr Manmohan Singh By: Dr VK Bahuguna (The writer is the former Director-General in the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India) As the country mourn the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who breathed his last on 26th December 2024 at the age of 92. The world leaders condoling the death of a man who was a common man’s Prime Minister and a golden boy of destiny. He ruled the nation for 10 years after having successfully dealt with the economic crisis of 1991 when the then Prime Minister Narsimha Rao appointed him Finance Minister and the rest is history of dismantling the license raj and ushered in economic liberalization of economy and the nation is grateful to him and the Narsimha Rao for opening up the economy of caged lion that is India the benefits of which the nation is reaping today.  I write this article when the country’s politics is witnessing high conflicts and drama and entire gam...