Isha Singh Sawhney

Look at this map. Nagpur 45°. Ahmedabad 44°. Prayagraj 43°. Delhi 42°. The entire country is a single dark red mass. This is not a heatwave. This is a country that was told its forests were fine. And this is April. Not May. Not June. The hottest months have not even arrived yet. The past few days have been hell. So I did what I always do when something bothers me. I went looking for answers. What I found was a policy con job that has been running for over two decades. But before I explain what happened, let's clear some definitions. A garden is not a forest. An orchard is not a forest. A plantation is not a forest. A forest is a living system. Soil, water, fungi, insects, birds, mammals, decades of accumulated complexity, specific to its land and climate. It cannot be designed. It cannot be harvested. It regulates water, cools land, shelters hundreds of species. It takes decades to become what it is. You can plant a forest. But it will take decades to become one. In 2001, India's forests were disappearing. The Indian state, led by the Vajpayee government, faced a choice. Protect what remained, or change what the numbers said. It chose the numbers. The Forest Survey of India quietly changed the definition of what a forest means. Any land with 10% tree canopy cover and more than one hectare in area was now a forest. Your mango orchard. A coconut plantation in Tamil Nadu. A tea garden in Assam. Lodhi Garden in Delhi. All forests, on paper. The FSI will tell you that 10% canopy cover follows international norms. The FAO also uses 10% as its threshold. But the FAO's definition comes with a crucial exclusion that India's FSI quietly dropped.  The FAO explicitly states that fruit tree plantations, oil palm plantations, olive orchards, and agroforestry systems are not forests. The World Bank says the same. India adopted the number but discarded the exclusion.  It took the cover of international legitimacy while gutting the standard that gave it meaning. The government will also tell you this was never hidden. That it was publicly stated in every report, disclosed in Parliament. That is technically true. But a disclosure buried in a technical government document is not transparency. It is the appearance of transparency.  I did not know any of this until I went looking. Neither do most Indians whose forests, whose land, whose air this directly concerns. The con is not in what was hidden from experts. It is in what was never explained to the people it was done to. This is not a technicality. This is the con. It was a trick as old as power itself. If you cannot fix the problem, fix the measurement. For ten years after 2001, Congress governed India. Two terms, two environment ministers, including Jairam Ramesh, one of the more serious ones. They saw the numbers. They knew what the numbers meant. They did nothing. Because the lie was convenient. India looked good in international climate negotiations. The fiction of a greening India served everyone in power, so everyone in power kept it. Congress did not create this lie. It simply chose, year after year, to live inside it. The BJP is different. When they returned to power in 2014, they came with something Congress never had. An absolute majority, and no coalition compulsions. They did not merely inherit the lie. They built on it. And in 2023, they legislated it. The Forest Conservation Amendment Act of 2023 removed legal protection from "deemed forests." Forests that existed outside the official definition but were ecologically real.  Forests that Adivasi communities had lived in and depended on for generations. Forests that cooled land, held water, sheltered species. They were not on the right list. Since the amendment, forest destruction on Adivasi land has accelerated.  The people who knew these forests best, who had protected them longest, now watch them being cleared. Legally. CONT++

There is now overwhelming evidence of the use of dogs to rape Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons - first reported in our Oct 2024 Al Jazeera Investigative Unit film GAZA. /1

So @TimesNow shares an unverified video with a baseless claim that explosions were heard near Jaipur airport creating panic among citizens. Deletes it later. No clarification. @DcDmJaipur clarifies.

99% of news on your timeline is FAKE.

AAP lost because no work was being done in Delhi since last few years And that is because BJP did everything possible to stall the whole functioning of the government. From using LG to halt orders, to their agencies jailing leaders under fake cases to passing new laws. Ever since the GNCTD Act of 2023, Delhi has already being indirectly ruled by BJP. It’s good that people of Delhi can now directly see who is really responsible for all their issues. The only question is whether people will still continue to talk about issues of air pollution, Yamuna pollution, crumbling infrastructure and cleanliness in the coming years. Or will BJP be successful in brainwashing and suppressing people to ignore all this in the name of religious hatred like they’ve done in many other states.

@Memeghnad @Rahulrajtwits x.com/vikramchandra/…

@Rahulrajtwits tell me one.

OK delhi people I have a question for you. Realistically speaking, how do you think the government can solve the pollution problem? (and I mean both state and centre when I say government)

‼️ BIG REVELATION ‼️ New document from DDA comes to light. All top officers of the Delhi government were present during the LG visit to Satbari. The SC has been asking for this exact information from the DDA. Who all were present during LG's visit to the ridge area where 1100 trees were felled? Why were all the officers quiet?

UPDATE: bag found. thanks for the retweets. now let’s see how much I am compensated for not having my bag for my entire holiday 🫤

hi @etihad, not been feeling like the world is my home🫤 My suitcase was last traced in @igairport #istanbulairport on 15.07.22. Zero updates since!! My flight Del-Abu Dhabi EY211-Athens was diverted via Istanbul EY97 to Athens A3 993 @aegeanairlines #lostluggage #etihadairlines

"#Kombucha is like a little bottled-up chemistry project." @greatist Only if all chemistry projects were 100% natural, tasted great, and FELT this GOOD for your gut and soul ✨🤓

When they say “you got a nice rack” and you really do 💁‍♀️ #nicerack #bhumour #kombuchahumor

Fuck #barhopping, we just want someone to drink a chilled #kombucha with us while looking at #stars and talking about the #universe and shit.

Please pray for Bangladesh, this is one of the worst floods that they have faced,it is getting extremely bad for the people in the Sylhet and Sunamganj region. I am going to link down some of the charities you can give to down below.

"The food we eat dictates what kind of inner garden we are growing in our #guts. This #garden is filled with bugs that determine more about your #health and your emotional and mental #wellbeing than you ever imagined" 🦋🌼 @drmarkhyman #WhyDrinkBhu #GutLove

we racked our heads for that one 😹

Believe in the power of rest ✨

Never again - order the box of Bada Bhu right to your doorstep #DelhiNCR! bhukombucha.com Use Code 2022BHU for an extra dose of gut love from us <3 #KombuchainDelhi #KombuchaCulture

🍓🍾🤤

Just here appreciating our #SCOBY. The #culture that gives #kombucha it’s life ✨ instagram.com/p/CdItSfBIa3F/…