Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Giri Gobardhan Forest Committee Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 15/05/2025. The Applicant Giri Gobardhan Forest Committee has filed the application alleging illegal felling of trees over an area of around 5 acres within the …
Compulsory acquisition (or "expropriation") is when a government uses it power to acquire private rights in land without the owner's or occupant's consent. The process is intended to benefit society and is frequently used to enhance social and economic development and to protect the natural environment. Nonetheless, a balance must …
The paper presents the socioeconomic profile of the people around proposed mining areas of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited at Talcher and Ib valley coal mine areas to generate base line data for future intervention. The Quality Of Life (QOL) has also been indexed in a 0-10 point scale based on some …
In the last year, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were a much discussed issue. Most of the discussion focused on two issues, viz. (a) the acquisition of land, rehabilitation, the consequences for farmers and agricultural output, and (b) the cost of the various tax benefits provided to developers of SEZs and …
The indigenous Australian Githabul people now own over 112,000 hectares of national parks and forests in New South Wales, a south-east Australian state. At a special hearing, the Federal Court ratified an agreement reached between the Githabul and the state government earlier this year, giving the indigenous people their native …
Kiran Chandra combines painting and print-making techniques to comment on the transformation of landscapes by a process of development founded on a will to reduce diversity to a monochrome. Language overlays image, constantly shifting meanings and challenging established referents. The artist likes to use the mundane imagery of everyday life …
Faced with 25,000 landless people from across the country marching up to parliament on October 29 to register their protest, the United Progressive Alliance (upa) government announced the creation of a committee on "State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms'. The union minister of rural development, Raghuvansh …
Thousands are fleeing from Nandigram in West Bengal as fresh clashes broke out between the ruling cpi-m cadres and anti-land acquisition activists on November 6. Four persons died and 10 were seriously injured in the violence. The official toll in the flare up
A little over a year before the Janadesh march, a working group appointed by the Planning Commission had termed land reforms in India a "forgotten agenda'. It minced no words in explaining why. "Policy makers are finding existing land reforms enacted on the basis of central guidelines of early seventies …
Sometimes, a fortnight can mirror a year. With the year-end approaching, a flashback is usually in order. But recent events have made completely clear to me where we are and where we are headed. This year, the world's who's who landed up. Our leaders basked in the floodlight of economic …
gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's attempt to appease tribals has backfired. On Gandhi Jayanti Modi handed over the ownership of forestland to 30 tribals and also promised to regularize the 2,204 claims over forestland. This, experts say, was in clear defiance of the Supreme Court ruling which barred any diversion …
a primitive peasant rebellion is not quite in keeping with the modern India with its soaring Sensex, extravagant malls and industrious call centres. A ragtag militia of rabble-rousers mouthing Marx and Mao and demanding land rights seems horribly antediluvian in times of Bollywood dreams and it ambitions. A hit-and-run force …
While the group of ministers has started deliberations on the pros and cons of the proposed national tribal policy, activists have raised questions about its utility. The policy aims at social, economic, linguistic and cultural development of tribals so that they will be at par with rest of the population …
"Why shouldn't salt-making be classed as agriculture?' asks R Potharaju. "Both require land, water and sunshine, and are subject to vagaries of nature,' he reasons. Potharaju is convenor of the Prakasam District Salt Farmers Forum. The forum believes that an official categorisation as agriculture would take care of the many …
Tribals in Orissa's Balangir district say they have been deceived. They allege an Agra-based company has duped them and taken away 200 acres (around 80 hectares) of their fertile land to plant jatropha, for biofuel production. "Taj Gases Ltd has cheated us and has taken most of our land. The …
After two decades of debate, the un General Assembly on September 13, adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous people, despite opposition from the us, Australia, Canada and New Zealand
On August 28, senior police officers and forest department personnel of two contiguous districts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka held a joint meeting to combat the growing Naxal presence in forest areas. Erode in Tamil Nadu, one of the two districts in question, had not far back been the hunting …
in what is seen as a vindication of the struggle for land rights, and a political victory, the police in Uttar Pradesh's Sonebhadra district withdrew nsa (National Security Act, 1980) charges against a social activist following orders from chief minister Mayawati on August 17. The district court of Sonebhadra has …
