-The Hindu MACHILIPATNAM (Andhra Oradesh): A group of 10 unsung volunteers has helped almost 2,000 fellow Yanadi tribal people to enrol as voters, enabling them to exercise their right to franchise in the general elections 2019. A nomadic tribe, the Yanadi in Krishna district have constantly been on the move in search of livelihood opportunities from one season to the next. With a large number of families living in the mangrove forests...

-News18.com Considering how governments have handed forests to destructive industries, why don't these wildlife-first organisations demand the eviction of the Forest Departments from forest lands? Imagine people who live in clearings inside an extensive dense forest, cultivating paddy, harvesting grass, bamboo, and mushrooms, and hunting the occasional deer. They stay awake at night, beating drums to tell their elephant brothers not to come for their hard-earned crop. Once the harvest is over,...

-Hindustan Times The claims are by tribal or pastoral communities seeking community rights over forest land they have inhabited for generations. Out of 4.224 million claims received, only 1.894 million titles have been distributed, 1.939 million have been rejected and a little less than 400,000 are still being assessed. One out of every two claims made since 2007 by forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act has been rejected, data from...

-The Indian Express According to the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Rules 2016, the district collector needs to complete the process of vesting of forest rights under the FRA and obtain written consent of the affected gram sabhas before any project proposal reaches the forest department for consideration. New Delhi: A day before it moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay and modification of its February 13 order directing states to evict over...

-The Indian Express As activists on both sides argue their case on the SC order on eviction of encroachers whose claims have been rejected under the FRA, an explanation of key issues: from dwindling forest cover to bogus claims. On February 28, the Supreme Court put on hold its February 13 order directing states to evict tribals and other forest-dwellers whose claims over encroached forest land had been rejected under the...