New Delhi Approves Slum Village

The government of Maharashtra state has granted approval to a group of slum-dwellers living on the edge of Bombay's largest forest, the National Park, to stay where they are. The government had previously launched a campaign against the group for encroaching into the forest, but a well-prepared action committee convinced officials that the land on which they lived was in fact the property of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, and was not technically National Park property. Growing violations of the Forest Conservation and Wildlife Protection Acts, reported the July 27 Khaleej Times, not to mention attacks by wild panthers on some of the slum dwellers, have prompted environmentalists to push for the slum-dwellers' expulsion. They argue that urbanization, which threatens the forest itself, also is forcing some animals to foray into the slums in search of food and putting slum-dwellers' lives at risk. …