Order of the Supreme Court in the matter of Sugra Adiwasi & Others Vs Pathranand & Others dated 29/04/2025. The bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the state of Madhya Pradesh as well as the central government through the the Ministries of Tribal Affairs and …
The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 has evoked heated controversy. In short, the bill seeks to provide land to a landless section among tribals. Wildlife conservationists who believe that critical forest habitat will be destroyed oppose this. Like its colonial predecessor, the government of India protects species' …
Without Rubu Bukur, I am completely lost. Two rows of eerily quiet houses snake along both sides of a dusty road. This is Lempia village in the Apatani valley of Arunachal Pradesh. Over the next few days, Bukur will become my interpreter and guide to the valley. But today, my …
The range of ecological dynamics the Apatani manage could make a professional ecologist tizzy. But even more mind-boggling is the range of socio-political dynamics that the people of the valley deal with and yet remain distinct. Till a few decades back, the Apatani valley was cut off from the rest …
A forest guard sets out on his nightly patrol in the Periyar Tiger Reserve (ptr) in Kerala's Idukki district with the most unlikely companion: a former smuggler of vayana, the bark of the cinnamon tree. The two appear to get along well especially that now both are on the same …
An acrimonious exchange of words over the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, has appeared in the national press during the past couple of months. The first salvo was fired by environmentalists, mislead by a calculated misinformation campaign that the bill will distribute 2.5 hectares of forest land to …
Since early this year, the news on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Ranthambore, India's flagship conservation areas in Rajasthan, has dominated the media and shocked the Indian public. But few are aware of the parallel decline, rather the near-death, of India's pastoral cultures, even though it concerns the livelihoods of …
Forest officials at the Melghat tiger reserve (mtr) have a strange predicament: the management plan of this 1,676.93 square kilometre (sq km) reserve in Maharashtra’s Amravati district cannot be executed, even though the state’s chief wildlife warden gave it his assent way back in November 2003. The plan waxes eloquent …
In 1985, 1,315.65 sq km of the mtr was notified as a sanctuary and people in the 61 villages within this protected area lost all their traditional rights over forests. After the 1994 mua notification, 22 villages were left within the sanctuary. In 2001-2002, three of them
a major mining scandal in Rajasthan's Jodhpur and Jaisalmer districts has been exposed in the past few months. Several cases have come to light of upper caste influential people fraudulently getting quarry licenses issued or renewed in the names of individuals belonging to the scheduled castes (scs), scheduled tribes (sts) …
As the meeting began, I flipped open my notebook. I am very comfortable with battery waste, polluting factories, discarded keyboards and sewage. But here were a battery of experts deliberating on an issue
Notwithstanding the legislative provisions to safeguard their landed interests, tribals are getting driven to circumstances in which retaining hold over the land under their possession is becoming difficult. The quality of land held by them is so poor that, in its present form, it cannot promise them any reasonable returns. …
Illegal logging has reached the hitherto uncontacted Jururei tribe in the Amazon forests of Brazil. The tribe has only eight to 10 members. It is the second "uncontacted' indigenous group in the area that has suffered increased threat from loggers after a recent court order permitted felling in a part …
Stay order: A division bench of the Gujarat High Court (HC), comprising chief justice Bhawani Singh and justice H K Rathod, recently passed an order that prevents the state's forest and revenue departments from forcibly evicting tribals staying in the Sagbara taluka of Narmada district. The HC said the directive …
family tree: An interesting project using genetics to trace how humans colonised the earth was launched recently. Called the Genographic Project, it proposes to collect DNA from hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including indigenous people, over the next five years. By analysing the DNA, researchers working on the project …
Some of the finest paper in the world is still made in the remote villages of hilly Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, whose Buddhist Monpa and Sherdukpan tribes are skilled artists. Handmade paper for their Bhodi scripts and tangkhas (paintings) is prepared from the pulp of the shugu sheng shrub. …
A BILL To recognise and vest rights to forest lands, and lands/waters and resources of other ecosystems, in urban dwellers, in recognition of their essential needs to maintain and enhance their lifestyles. Chapter 1: Definitions For the purposes of this Act, the following definitions will apply: "Urban dwellers' are those …
