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 …
FEMALE foeticide and infanticide are not unique to India -- they are prevalent almost globally. They were practised in ancient Greece and were prevalent among certain Arabian tribes until recently. The Yanomani Indians of Brazil still practise it. In India, female infanticide is often attributed to poverty, but the rich, …
The Kerala High Court has blocked the state government's highly-publicised distribution of 28,588 ha of forest land to migrant farmers who occupied the land prior to 1977. On September 15, the court stayed the distribution of title deeds for land either occupied originally by tribals or included in the Idukki …
IN BRAZIL'S worst such incident in nearly a century, gold miners illegally prospecting on the Yanomami reservation are believed to have massacred, with machetes and guns, 73 Indian tribals. Brazilian President Itamar Franco called in the country's military leadership to control the miners and set up a special ministry for …
"I WAS A labourer, but now, because of the project, I am free. I cannot explain what this means to me," says Dadabhau Jadhav, a frail, small-built Thakkar Adivasi of Mothewadi village in the foothills of Maharashtra's Sahyadri range. For generations, the Thakkar Adivasis have worked as contract and even …
CIVILISATIONS have grown by clearing jungles, draining swamps and reclaiming deserts to produce more food, build cities, mine the earth, establish a variety of infrastructure and develop industry. This displaces people who must obviously be compensated and resettled. And nothing displaces as many people as dams. Understandably these have attracted …
FIRST, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha began a highly publicised fast to back her state's claims to Cauvery water. Then, a flustered Union government came up with a proposal that presumably satisfied Jayalalitha, because she called off her fast. And, finally, Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily ungallantly played the …
LAST MONTH, 40 Aztec Indians led a march from downtown Vienna to the Austria Centre, venue of the World Conference on Human Rights, to highlight the plight of the world's 300 million indigenous people. Lobbying for the rights of indigenous people at the conference was appropriate, 1993 being the Year …
AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Paul Keating dismissed fears that the concept of giving aborigines title to native land could put the country's agriculture and mining industries at risk. Keating was responding to a leading conservative politician's warning that the high court ruling, which handed ownership of government land to aborigines, would …
SLASH-and-burn cultivation immediately conjures images of destruction. One imagines vast areas of smouldering forest land dotted with burnt out tree stumps. But this method of farming, also known as swidden cultivation, is actually a sustainable form of forest agriculture. The technique of slash-and-burn cultivation has been practised by generations of …
BORNEO'S dense, virgin rainforests are interspersed with large, naked patches where trees have been plucked out by loggers. Meandering rivers such as the Baram that run through the forests have turned red with silt washed down from the now-barren hillsides. The government and the timber companies, however, blame tribal shifting …
AUTHORITIES at Dudhwa National Park are wallowing in smugness at the ease with which they evicted tribals who occupied forest land near the park. Boasts Lakhimpur-Kheri superintendent O P Singh, "Without even raising a baton, we deported the encroachers to Bichhia." Sixty-two tribals were arrested. Although the deportation exercise went …
IN THE UN Year of Indigenous Peoples, Brazilian Indians have received a setback with the dismissal of Sydney Possuelo, head of Brazil's Indian Affairs Bureau, who was actively involved in protecting and demarcating Indian land. Under the constitution, all Indian lands must be demarcated by October 1993, but so far …
WHEN THE UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights meets in Geneva in August, we may see another forward step by the growing movement for international acceptance for the concept of environmental rights. The meeting will review a three-year study on the links between human rights and the environment by the sub-commission's …
MOST OF the 300 million indigenous people in the world live in highly vulnerable ecosystems and have often been deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedom, resulting in dispossession of their land and resources. Because they are such a high risk group, they are also the most in need …
Brazil: All persons are entitled to an ecologically balanced environment. China: The state is to protect and improve the living environment and the ecological environment, and prevent and combat pollution and other hazards. Guyana: In the interests of the present and future generations, the state is to take all appropriate …
BESET by famine and drought, large sections of Orissa and Bihar are beginning to mirror the stark images of hunger in Somalia and Sudan. In Orissa, more than 10 million people -- the majority of whom are tribals -- are reeling under a famine. In tribal-dominated south Bihar, too, more …
PEOPLE in Orissa's famine-hit regions are desperately selling their children -- not for the money but to ensure two square meals a day for them. So far, 16 cases of children being sold have been exposed in the local media, but the state government is yet to admit even one. …
Miners have once again encroached upon the land allotted to the Yanomami, South America's largest surviving tribe of forest Indians. The miners have been ordered on three previous occasions to get out of the Yanomami reservation, even though Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mellor's orders to evacuate miners from the …
In a chilling reminder of his prowess as an outlaw, sandalwood smuggler and poacher Veerappan and his gang exploded an electronic landmine, which destroyed a van carrying members of a task force set up specially to nab him. Twenty-two policemen died in the April 9 explosion at, which occurred less …
A pilot project to install energy-efficient, solar lanterns as an employment generation scheme in the northeastern states is to be implemented soon by the Department of Non-conventional Energy Sources (DNES), the Department of Science and Technology and the North-eastern Council. If the programme succeeds, installation will be expanded to a …
