Historic win for farmer seed rights: PepsiCo’s IPR on potato variety revoked

Judgement against Pepsico potato variety sets precedent for all seed and food and beverages corporations not to transgress farmers’ seed …

Reforms in India’s forest sector stuck in reverse gear

The proposed amendment to the IFA reveals the mindset of policymakers regarding the forest sector has not changed

Now tribal affairs ministry FRA claim settlement number under cloud

Is there something fishy behind giving wrong data for over a decade and then disowning it?

Villagers win brewing forest rights fight in Odisha

The Odisha government had to scrap a Rs 102 crore brewing project when resolute villagers braved the government and police to protect felling of …

Gond tribals, Madhya Pradesh government fight for 4000 hectares of land

Two government departments and landless people are locked in a legal battle over 4,000 ha in Madhya Pradesh whose outcome would have countrywide …

Who has rights over a citizen’s body? New twist in Aadhaar controversy

Centre says citizens don’t have absolute rights over their body, but critics point to right to liberty and dignity 

Water in northern Australia: a history of Aboriginal exclusion

Ever since British settlement, water rights in Australia's north have favoured landowners over traditional owners, effectively locking Aboriginal …

Tribal ministry panels draft fresh guidelines for community forest, habitat rights

Gram Sabhas may get more power in managing community forest, habitat

300,000 forestland claims unverified

1,300 villages, common agenda

Gram sabhas resolve to get rights over community-owned land and resources registered

The Forest Rights Act and self-help transformed this remote Odisha tribal village; here is how

Residents of Loyendia have regenerated forests and made a new dirt road within a decade of getting community forest resource rights

Climatic crises can be handled by Ambedkarite principles like democratic governance & moral, spiritual humanism: V M Ravi Kumar

On Babasaheb’s birth anniversary, DTE speaks to the head, department of history, at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow on …

Civil society organisations should count on their huge social capital and invest it into future actions

Civil society organisations are often targets of political interference and manipulation, which can limit their ability to operate

Community reserves: Are they forest department’s backdoor entry into North East India

Provisions of Wild Life (Protection) Act apply to an area once it becomes a community reserve; it is also unclear as to which law will apply if …

One square meal: How this non-tribal forest-dweller family survives without FRA recognition in Odisha

Srikumar Khadi’s claim to his land in Odisha’s Sundergarh district is over a century old; but it still awaits recognition

Why the Dangs has not been able to implement FRA properly

The ‘real owner’ of forest land is still the forest department. Such brazen violation of the law betrays a systematic attempt to …

‘Attacks against land rights activists rising in India, Asia’

Special legislation and quick response systems needed to provide protection and support to these defenders, experts said at a meeting in Udaipur

Sonbhadra women, others seek to participate in Supreme Court FRA hearing

Two ST women demand “equal and independent” rights to women over forest land

‘The IFA amendment is a zero draft; all stakeholders will be involved later’

Director General of Forests, Siddhanta Das tells DTE that the proposed amendment in the Indian Forest Act is a mostly techno-legal exercise and …

Gujarat land activists allege detention for demonstrating over rights

Protesters seek land rights under Forest Rights Act, roll back of decision to give land to corporations for farming

Green clearances are being increasingly treated as a mere formality

In the garb of streamlining green clearances, the Union government has sidelined communities and diluted environmental regulations over the past …

Kathua incident reveals threats to pastoral nomads of Jammu & Kashmir

The gruesome Kathua rape was a reminder of the institutional denial of forest and land rights of Jammu and Kashmir's nomadic communities

Implementation of forest rights in protected areas virtually non-existent, claims new report

Implementation of FRA in protected areas has been virtually non-existent and claims filed under FRA lie pending for as long as since 2009

Centre’s new guidelines on compensatory afforestation ignore communities’ concerns

Guidelines have tried to address the challenge of land scarcity for compensatory afforestation but have fallen short of clarifying minimum …

Amendments to century-old laws on tribal rights spark protests in Jharkhand

The proposed amendments would increase land acquisitions for mining and other industrial uses, causing mass displacement of tribals