The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
February 2, 2001, is a date etched in blood in Tapkara. It was the first major incident of violence in about three decades of protest against the proposed Koel-Karo dam in the Torpa block of Ranchi district, Jharkhand. Police opened fire on 2,000 tribal people (or 5,000, depending on the …
Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the best place to learn how to use a tribal welfare machinery to subvert tribal interests and then use it to counter the polity at large that defends those interests. Three years ago, the state used a body mandated by the constitution
Democracy and self-rule remain elusive in tribal India. The main reason: India has no policy for its tribal people. Though the constitution acknowledged the special situation of tribal communities, it did nothing more than create some special windows of representation according to the population proportion. Result: the overall approach of …
You talk about a paradigm shift in tribal affairs. What do you mean? At the time of India's independence, tribal people in central India were seen as backward, superstitious, naive and poor. Even well meaning people concentrated on relief and improving their physical conditions. After 1947, the so-called mainstream had …
Chekkottu Kariyan (C K) Janu is an adivasi leader in Kerala. She is on bail after she was imprisoned for more than 40 days for leading an agitation demanding tribal rights over the Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary in Wayanad district in Kerala (See: The truth about Muthanga). C K Janu …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your area? I would say education, poor living standards, the need for sound water management, and improvement in the communications infrastructure. There is a lot of discontentment among tribals in Jharkhand against the forest department over the issue of unsettled claims …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Are they the same as they were 50 years ago? Tribals need development, like the rest of the country. I don't look at tribals with a separate perspective. We have been segregating them since independence. That's why they are …
You publicly demanded regularisation of land taken over by the tribals in Singhbhum. You made it a precondition for joining the Arjun Munda cabinet Yes. It is their land. They have their ancestors' tombstones to prove it. I have been demanding a resolution to this issue for a long time. …
Why are there so many disputes over forestland in the state? Why are tribals pitted against the forest department? Land is not an issue in tribal areas. The issue is development and exploitation of the region by the government of Bihar. There are no roads, water employment. Land is not …
What are the most important issues for the tribals in your area? Unemployment, migration and lack of development. You were part of the protest against the Koel-Karo project. Would you scrap the Koel-Karo project if you come to power? I did support the movement against the project. But I don't …
You have spent a lifetime struggling for Jharkhand. How does the new state look to you? This is not the Jharkhand that we fought for. That included 22 districts including those in West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. What's your stand on the Koel-Karo project? I led the movement for …
When did you rise to political prominence? What were the issues that propelled you to the political stage? When the Karzan dam was built in 1979, 19 villages, including ours, were submerged. We were paid compensation. In my student days back in the early 1980s, I was with the Congress. …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Political empowerment, land alienation (by non-tribals, forest laws, dams, mining and militancy), education, poor standard of living and insurgency. Why are these issues crucial? Earlier, there was a safety in separation. The British administration didn't exist in Karbi-Anglong as …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Economic development, unemployment, agriculture, poor roads, irrigation, education and health and electricity. When did these issues become so important? There is not too much difference in the issues that were important earlier and the ones that are important today. …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? The question of maintaining tribal identity, government failure to understand tribal sentiment, land alienation, displacement and rights related to the forest. Why are these issues crucial today? Tribals don't need just the money. Even in the 21st century, half …
a proposed constitutional amendment and the shifting allegiances of the governor of the state of Roraima threaten to deprive Brazil's indigenous Macuxi people of nearly 1.6 million hectares of contiguous land in the state. The change in statute, scheduled to be voted on soon, decrees that no more than 50 …
The last decade has seen a spate of judicial activism related to both environment and human rights. Two questions pertinent to recent judicial activism are dealt with in this article: 1. Has judicial activism contributed to environmental justice, in the sense of keeping in view the social implications of environmental …
Sometime in 1996, fed up with the refusal of the ministry of environment and forests (mef) to prepare a biodiversity legislation for India, two non-governmental organisations, Gene Campaign and Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, swung into action. Consultations among people interested in biodiversity and the environment began. Gene Campaign …
