What have the poor tribals of Orissa in common with the latest Hollywood hit Avatar? Apparently, there are uncanny similarities between the 3D animation movie and a documentary made on the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa by Survival International (SI). The ten-minute documentary is titled ‘Mine: story of a sacred mountain’ brings out the plight of the indigenous people. The SI has appealed to Avatar’s director James Cameron through media...

Vedanta Resources is under fire from heaven and earth, and even Hollywood has been asked to join in. Tribal rights campaigner Survival International has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron, through an advertisement in US entertainment magazine Variety, to help it stop the company from mining for bauxite in an Orissa forest. The ad drew parallels between the Na’vi tribe in Avatar, who try to stop humans from mining under their sacred...

I have been an advisor to The Energy and Resources Institute or Teri, a distinguished visiting fellow there since 1996, except when I was the chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, the chairman of the Institute for Social and Economic Change and on boards of management and economic research institutions. This disclaimer is intended to forestall motives being ascribed...

DINDORI: While an interface between tradition and technology often leads to the surfacing of conflict-inducing fault lines, just sometimes the two integrate seamlessly to alter lifestyles of those who experience them. One such example is German technological assistance changing the lives of Baiga tribals of Dindori district. Tribals of the Chhapra village in the district, who still trade through the barter system, have achieved a great degree of self-sufficiency through...

Bt brinjal is a genetically modified version of an eggplant that is injected with a protein that makes it immune to pests Kochi: There’s a new player in the fight against Bt brinjal, a village panchayat in Kerala that is seeking to preserve a traditional variety of eggplant. As part of the plans of the village-level elected legislative body, around 8,000 households in the Mararikulam North gram panchayat in the coastal...