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 …
While applauding the steps taken by indigenous peoples for the recognition of their rights over their territories, Dianne Rocheleau, Barbara Thomas Slayter and David Edmonds, researchers at Clark University, USA, have drawn attention to the need for a gender-based analysis of how spaces are used, valued and struggled over in …
MAPS are no longer the exclusive forte of cartographers. Ordinary tribals the world over have begun using mapping techniques to emphasise that they exist. "More indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns. As a corollary, more indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended by maps than by …
The sudden decision of the World Bank (WB) to revoke the decision to shift the tribals inside the core areas of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve (STR), recently put the district administration and the state government in a tight spot. A state forest department official said, "First, the Bank told us …
RECENTLY, the tribals at Chidia in the West Singhbhum district in Bihar took up cudgels in protest against the proposed modernisation of Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) unit. The pent up anger in tribals at being exploited for centuries is now slowly breaking out. The tribal leaders have alleged …
THE struggle for existence may finally be over for the tribals and poor landless families in Karnataka who depend on forest land for their livelihood. The state government will soon regularise unauthorised cultivation of about 16,949.25 ha of forest land encroached by these families before July 21, 1978 when the …
THE Nigerian government's going ahead with the prosecution (read persecution) of 19 more of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa's comrades has kept the world's focus sharply glued to the African nightmare. Everything has failed in dissuading the tyrannic regime of General Sani Abacha from mowing down the environmental rights of the …
MENDHA. A small adivasi village tucked away in the interior of Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. In this nondescript village, the residents have raised the revolutionary banner of Mava nate mava raj (Our rule in our villages) - with the help of some outside 'friends- and waged a war with the authorities …
A MEMORANDUM of Understanding (Mou) between the Tropical Botanical Gardens and Research Institute (TBGRI) and two private companies, the Madras-based Velvette International Pharma Products and Arya Vaidya Pharmacy of Coimbatore, to be signed on July 22, was stalled recently. Last minute political maneouverings from certain sections forced the state government …
The mythical univer5e of the Yanomami i5 extremely complex. U5ing it5 ideal5, 5haman (prie5t) David Yanomami from Demeni village gave a moving te5timony of the trauma hi5 people are going through a5 a re5ult of the invasion of their land5. In hi5 test imony to anthropologi5t Bruce Albert in 1990, …
The Yanomami are not the only tribal communities among Brazil's Indians facing a dark future. The Guarani Kaiowa Indians in the state of Mato Grosso do Sui are showing signs of mass frustration, and incidence of suicides among them have shot up recently. The figure of 30 suicides this year …
Between 1968 and 1978, anthropologists and missionaries petitioned the Brazilian government 11 times for a protect- ed ayea for the Yanomami, but to no avail. Finally, in 1978, outraged by the ever-worsening situation of the Yanomami people, a group of concerned citizens in Brazil (including anthropologists, ecologists, lawyers, clerics, and …
Amazon apocalypse For the handful of surviving Yanomami tribals left in the Amazonian rainforests of Brazil and Venezuela, the recent moves to end their rights over their home - the forests - could very well sound their death knell From June this year the pressure started building on both sides …
A MERE mention of the Koel Karo project incites angry outbursts from the tribals of Chotanagpur region. Men, women and children together lambast the project. Demonstrations, speeches and public gatherings demolish the concept of development put forward by the government and industrialists. The film brings out the cultural significance of …
TUCKED away in the flat valley of Dalma hills in East Singhbhum Patna district, Bihar, lies the village of B I H A R Pagda. Although only 20 km. away from the steel city of shedpur, it had remained jamPat impoverished and underdeveloped until five years ago. Pagda today, however, …
You had once said something to the effect that Mava Nate Mava Sarkar. What does it mean? Mava nate mava sarkar. Dilli, Mumbai mava sarkar. The people we elect to represent us run the government in Delhi and Bombay. But in our village, we arc the government. We run the …
WHEN the Rural Litigation and Enlightenment Kendra (IRLEK), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Rajaji National Park, initiated a programme to educate the Gujjars, they came up with resistance from the
The Saiga adivasis of Ghanneri village, living in Achanakmar sanctuary area of Bilaspur, have nothing but their undying spirit of struggle to fall back upon. Many at them, basods by profession (who make their living by selling bamboo-based goods like brooms, mats etc), have been ruined, since the forest policy …
MINOR forest produce. To tribals anywhere, they form the demarcating line between plentiful food and persistent hunger. But present government policies are pushing more for commercial exploitation of the forests and monoculture plantations. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that today the struggles of adivasi (tribal) movements all over the country …
Sriprakash, whose previous film, Kiski Raksha (Whose Safety), on Netarhat - which presented the conflict between the army and local tribes - has finished his second film. Addo Milad Wgulan (Another Revolt) Is a documentary on the tribal movement of Bihar. This time around It describes the 30-year-old struggle against …
It was a dream find for a social scientist researching tribal art and culture for the last 15 years. Recently, while working in West Bengal, Ravikent Dwlvedi chanced upon a uniciae form of tribal art. Some members of the Santhal tribe have mastered the art of making puppets, and that …
