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 …
JAGARAN is a non-government organisation working on reviving the dying art of herbal healing in an impoverished tribal belt in Udaipur district. But its efforts have provoked a backlash among local allopaths and Karu Ram, a guni as herbalists are called, explains why: "Because we provide effective and free treatment …
AS WOMEN in Rajasthan insist on being treated by only another woman, Jagaran is making an effort to recruit women as gunis. One much sought after woman herbalist is 42-year-old Laxmi Bai of Gamana Sagar village in Udaipur district. She is the mother of six, and the wife of a …
WHEN ALL the good-sized trees had vanished from the forest around Khudamunda hamlet in Sambalpur district, Orissa, a villager went into a reserve forest nearby in search of poles for his hut. He was caught and beaten by a forest guard, who then took a hefty sum and a goat …
VILLAGERS in Lapanga, Sambalpur district, assert they initiated forest protection as long ago as 1936, making Lapanga one of the first villages to do so. The villagers protect about 250 ha of forest, of which 75 ha. are ryoti (private) land, donated for use as a community-run forest. The protection …
THE BRAZILIAN government swung into action recently to evict thousands of gold-panners from a 94,000- sq-kin Yanomami reserve near the Venezuelan border to save the 9,000 members of South America's largest Indian tribe from an outbreak of malaria. Thousands of panners who left the reserve to celebrate Carnival elsewhere are …
ENVIRONMENTAL issues are making their mark on Indian television. Doordarshan features the science and environment programme Turning Point each week in a prime-time slot, hitherto reserved for Hindi serials. News programmes such as The World This Week and Parakh also frequently spotlight coverage of environmental conflicts. A recent edition of …
NORMAL life in the Philippines is often disrupted by nature -- typhoons andoccasionallyvolcanic eruptions. The archipelago of more than 70islands is struck by typhoons several times each yearmainly between June and December. These storms can cause extensive damage and in some yearsup to 25 typhoons hit the country. Volcanoes are …
IN MARCH 1991, Aeta tribals living in Pinatubo region felt a rumbling in the long-dormant volcano. Birds and animals also exhibited showed signs of agitation. Here is an account of what followed: April 2: A hydrothermal explosion shakes the area, forcing columns of steam upto 800 m high from vents …
EIGHTEEN months after the Pinatubo erupted, much of the landscape in the Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac provinces is blanketed by what looks like slurry, but is in fact volcanic sediment deposited by lahars -- thick, flowing mixtures of volcanic material and water. Lahars carry much more sediment than the muddiest …
TRIBALS from 23 villages in Udaipur district, citing the potential displacement of 12,000 people, are gearing up for protracted battle with the government to scrap the proposed Manasi Wakal dam, intended to supply drinking water to Udaipur. The villagers allege the project, in fact, was conceived to meet the massive …
Seeking to regain its political base among the tribals in western Madhya Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has switched from championing the World Bank-funded Narmada dam -- its policy when it was in power -- and now wants the project to be reviewed. Party secretary Govindacharya, who recently inspected rehabilitation …
THE PRISTINE woods of the Biligirirangan Hills in Mysore district, a reserved forest, are marred by denudation that has left only a few eucalyptus and silver oak patches on the lower slopes. The destruction by contractors has wrought havoc on the Soliga tribals, who have lived in Biligirirangam for centuries. …
WHEN GUJJAR Zahur Hussain got into a trifling argument with a forestry official who was on his way to a temple in the Rajaji National Park, little did he expect what followed. That evening the official -- a deputy director of the park -- came to Hussain's hut accompanied by …
TO ENSURE poorer Indians may not wind up lining the gowns of unscrupulous lawyers, the Free Legal Aid Scheme was introduced in 1980 by the Union government. Since then, many voluntary agencies have complained of the extremely tardy implementation of the scheme, meant to benefit those with an annual family …
ALL OVER the country, there are tensions around national parks and sanctuaries. People living in and around these forests see them as the last remaining sources of biomass and depend on them heavily to meet their fuel and fodder needs. Grazing and other regulations imposed by wildlife managers have cut …
INTO THE HEART is an apt title for the autobiography of anthropologist Kenneth Good and the ethnography of the Yanomama Indians rolled into one, and for a romantic book that journeys into the heart of the unexplored Venezuelan jungle. When Good set off to study the Hasupuweteri Yanomama, he had …
WE WERE a group of college students on our way up to Kaza in the Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh, and the large flocks of sheep that greeted us on our way were our first introduction to the world of the Gaddis. According to anthropological studies, the Gaddis are an …
THE WILDLIFE Protection Act of 1972 made illegal the traditional occupation of the Irula tribals of Tamil Nadu. Consequently, the tribals who specialised in catching snakes, rats and termites and in collecting medicinal herbs, took up agricultural labour and road laying -- jobs that could not sustain them through the …
THERE can be no sharper indictment of the government's attempts to protect the environment than this: After 20 years of spending money and effort, Project Tiger is in shambles. Experts say the fate of tigers in India may be worse than when this much-flaunted conservation bid was launched. Some even …
