Affidavit by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the matter of Sisir Kumar Panda Vs Union of India & Others dated 20/05/2025. The issue pertained to the removal of illegal construction/obstruction caused by the state authorities as well as the private persons in the ecological sensitive zone …
Kunwar Singh Jonko, 34, belongs to the Ho people, a Scheduled Tribe. His village Katamba is deep inside the forest, 60-odd km west of Chaibasa, the headquarters of East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. In the Forest Department (FD) register, his house, his fields and the entire Katamba village is an …
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 …
within a month of the onset of monsoon, large parts of India are under the weather. Twelve states have reported outbreaks of various diseases and close to 400 people have died. The Union ministry of health and family welfare's (mohfw) prescription for arresting this alarming trend is yet another centralised …
