-The Telegraph New Delhi: A year after the Supreme Court pulled up 19 states, including Bengal, that did not have a commission to protect children's rights and directed them to set up one, most of these panels exist only on paper. All states/Union territories are required to have a child rights commission under Section 17 of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005. Twenty-three states now have the panels -...

-Down to Earth Mining ministry opposes cap on Iron ore production; envIronment ministry disregards recommendation to cancel licence of firms encroaching forestland The Central government has rejected a key recommendation of justice M B Shah Commission, that of putting a cap on Iron ore production in Odisha. The commission has been probing illegal mining across the country. In its first report released recently, it had pegged the loss to the Odisha government...

-The Hindu Proposals formulated in response to Shah Commission report The Union Ministry of EnvIronment and Forests has prepared its response to the Justice M.B. Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Odisha. But its proposals to address the violations flagged by the Commission will now be put on the back burner as the Cabinet has decided to refer the matter to a Committee of Secretaries. In most of its proposals, accessed by...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Union Cabinet on Thursday referred the MB Shah commission of inquiry report on illegal mining in Odisha to the committee of secretaries (CoS) to suggest further action which may include recovery of nearly Rs 60,000 crore from the miners and a CBI probe into roles of public servants in allocating mines to private companies. The commission has severely indicted both the Centre and the Odisha government...

-Survival International Anthropologist Dr. Felix Padel works with the tribes of Odisha in eastern India, including the Dongria Kondh, for whom Survival International has campaigned for 10 years. Felix is the great great grandson of Charles Darwin and lives in a remote village in Odisha. In this interview, he talks to Survival about the Dongria Kondh's relationship to their mountains, their heroic struggle against Vedanta, Darwin's evolution theory and the experience...