Fighting for survival

at the sun sets on Tentuli, a village in Keonjhar district of Orissa, it is time to prepare for a long, sleepless night. As darkness descends, the male members of the village make sure that the children and women are tucked away in the safety of tree houses they have built. They then guard their dear ones from the wrath of elephants with drums and fire till the break of dawn.

A shift in tradition

this is an interesting monograph. It combines historical ethnography with archaeology to understand the dynamics of the shifting agricultural system of the mountain dwelling Paharia community.

INDIA

• The 11th Planning Commission has directed the Karnataka government to focus on ways to encourage the herbal medicine sector. At least 55 per cent of the medicinal plants that have been notified by the government are found in Karnataka.

KOEL KARO

A report compiled by the Delhi Forum, a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, on Koel Karo killings of February 2, 2001, has alleged that the police fired at unarmed protestors without any provocation. Members of the Koel Karo Jan Sangathan (KKJS), an organisation of indigenous people, had assembled at Tapkara village in Ranchi district of Jharkhand to protest against the beating up of a member of KKJS by the police (see 'Koel Karo firing', Down To Earth , Vol 9, No 20, March 15). Six people were killed and 50 others injured during the incident.

Koel Karo firing

Open and shut case

Total forest cover of CHATTISGARH, UTTARANCHAL and JHARKHAND

Chattisgarh

RAIPUR'S air is euphoric. The secretariat, earlier the main civil hospital of the city, still smells of fresh paint. A huge cutout of chief minister Ajit Jogi overlooks its premises, while residents of Raipur eagerly debate the future of this natural resource-rich state and the opportunities it brings. The general belief is that there will be a change towards better governance.

Uttaranchal

WHILE the first chief minister of Uttaranchal was being sworn in at midnight on November 9, 2000, many leaders who fought for statehood swore to continue the struggle. "It is not over yet," summed up Kamla Pant, a leader at the forefront of the movement and member of the Uttrakhand Mahila Manch. "It is a state born bereft of rights over its own resources," she added.

"If necessary we can change the Forest Conservation Act"

What would be your charter of development? I don't have any charter except what the people expect from us. We have taken over at a time when people have high expectations. The government will implement the people's agenda. But what is your priority?

Jharkhand

ON NOVEMBER 15, 2000 when the collective dream of some 22 million people for half-a-century rolled into reality, there was hardly anybody to celebrate. Jharkhand, India's youngest state and one of the richest, was born at midnight. Twenty minutes later, a new government was sworn in to chart out its destiny - a century after the legendary Birsa Munda's call for self-governance.