-The Hindu Administration argues pulling down their huts will ensure ‘safety of wildlife’ KAWARDAH (CHHATTISGARH): A day after the Union government announced a Rs.100-crore grant for Chukutiya Bhunjia of Orissa, a primitive tribe which lives on the eastern border of Chhattisgarh, 30 huts of the Baigas, another primitive tribe, were razed to the ground by government officials in the western part of the State. The incident took place on February 18, adjacent to...

-The Times of India As many as 436 people died last year due to serious adverse events (SAE) during clinical trials. Investigations are now on to ascertain how many of the deaths were caused by drugs administered to the trial subjects. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Friday that deaths could be due to life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart failure and stroke or side-effects of the drugs or their...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: The Dharmadhikari panel, in its third interim report to the state government, has suggested placing restrictions on social networking sites as they "corrupt adolescents". A copy of the January 16, 2013, report with 31 recommendations was submitted to a Bombay high court division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anoop Mohta on Thursday. The committee, headed by retired high court judge Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari, was constituted...

-The Hindu ‘State nod enough for diversion of forest land unless it significantly affects quality of life of displaced persons’ In a major turnaround in its stand on the Vedanta case, the government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Gram Sabha Consent was not required for diversion of forest land, barring in exceptional cases. In an affidavit submitted in the court, the government — the Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Environment and...

-The Guardian The government's decision to allow major infrastructure projects to go ahead without obtaining Consent for forest clearance paves the way for the violation of village land rights, say rights groups Land and tribal rights in India have been dealt a new blow after the government announced last week that major infrastructure projects will be exempt from obtaining Consent for forest clearance from tribal communities living in the forest, a decision...