Rightful or rightless: Forest villagers in Saranda struggle to shed ‘illegal’ tag

Jharkhand forest department refuses to recognise rights of occupants of forest villages like Marchi gada in West Singhbhum

Environment ministry makes forest rights Act irrelevant in initial stage of forest clearance

Letter from MOEFCC regarding Western Coalfields projects in Maharashtra also shun tribal ministry’s concerns

Malnutrition among tribal children

Malnutrition is unacceptably higher among India’s tribal population than other communities. Among tribal children under five, 51.1 per cent …

Do we need to ‘save’ the Sentinelese?

The Sentinelese and other tribes of the Andamans are minuscule in number. Will they die out or survive?

Tribal rights in India are a grey picture: experts

In the light of the recent murder of a US national in the Andamans by an isolated tribe, experts say the rights of indigenous communities in …

Chhattisgarh, MP elections: Forest rights emerge as major issue

Activists send people’s manifesto to political parties asking them to empower the tribals by recognising their rights over land and forest …

A decade on, only 40% of FRA claims approved

The latest status report of the FRA says most claims were rejected by either gram sabhas or district committees

From hypertension to cancers, alarm bells ringing in India’s tribal belts

Tribal people are facing triple burden of diseases

Indira, Manmohan, Modi: Why all see civil society with suspicion

The arrests of activists and rights campaigners is set to further dip the relationship between government and the civil society

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 …

Winds of change in tribal villages

A slew of measures like horticulture, beekeeping, polycropping and creation of water harvesting structures guarantee income augmentation among …

Tribal ministry tells states to stop rejecting FRA claims on invalid grounds

In a letter dated June 27, Leena Nair, the then secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs had written to the chief secretaries of states raising …

GST removed on sabai rope, sal and siali leaves

The GST rate on these products was brought down from 5% to nil by the GST Council in its 28th meeting held on July 21

Forest dept in Odisha oversteps FRA rules, complain tribal rights activists

They say that Kalahandi district’s divisional forest officer issued a transit permit to take bamboo out of forest land when he has no right …

Telangana’s revised District Mineral Foundation Rules to increase political interference

The amendment to the Rules has taken away the right of people to participate in making decisions on a fund meant for them

Polavaram dam project has opened floodgates of corruption: activists

Activists are calling for setting up of a multi-member judicial commission to do a comprehensive enquiry into the process of land acquisition, …

The Island of Turtles

BJP leader Tarun Vijay recently tweeted that Havelock Island in the Andaman Archipelago should be renamed as “Rani Lakshmibai Island”.…

Energy in news on May 23

Here’s a round-up of today’s news reports and debates on energy

Supreme Court fines illegal miners in Odisha, directs fund to be used for tribal benefit in mining districts

Also directs Centre to revise National Mineral Policy to regulate mining effectively

बजट और गरीब

चेन्नई के गांधीवादी आर्थिक चिंतक अन्नामलई कहते हैं देखिए बजट तो पेश होता है लेकिन इसका असर साल के अंत तक जिसके लिए घोषणाएं ...

Allocation for schools in tribal areas increased, but funds for other education schemes heavily slashed

Funds for hostels and pre-matric scholarships for ST students sustained a drop of 94 per cent and 75 per cent respectively

Budget 2018: NDA’s tribal development scheme reduced to tokenism

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana was introduced in 2014 for the overall development of tribal communities

Odisha forest department overrides FRA to make its own rules

Forest department is coercing villagers into following some measures without which their rights over collecting bamboo will be cancelled

Divine spirits at risk

Instead of identification, the state should allow tribal rights over sacred groves

Habitat rights of Odisha’s tribal group denied; their livelihood also at stake

The bone of contention is the core area of the Similipal Tiger Reserve where the Mankidia tribe eke out a living by collecting Siali fibre