A day before the Group of Ministers meeting on environment clearances, the Environment ministry has expressed willingness to increase the coal mining area to 74 % in 28 blocks, which fall in forests, as against 65% earlier. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is expected to inform the GoM that he was willing to allow coal mining in 28 coal blocks, which fall in 'No-Go' areas by redefining its boundaries. This means that an...

The government is getting ready to grant lease for granite mining despite strong opposition from the tribals in many areas of Palakonda in Srikakulam district. The irony is that the authorities are planning to grant these leases at the very place where they had already issued pattas to the local tribals. The tribals are already up in arms over the mining lease issue at Kannedhara Konda in Seetampeta mandal, Yelukalametta...

The Posco opponents have thrown a direct challenge to the police and civil authorities by breaking the road leading to Jtadhari, where the South Korean steel major has proposed to put up a captive port. The authorities are gearing up for starting work at the steel plant project site near Paradip after the union ministry of environment and forest cleared Posco-India's proposal to set up a 12 million ton steel plant,...

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants it to be the new Singapore. State officials call it Urjanchal, land of energy. For sociologist Sakarama Somayaji, the enduring image from India’s emerging energy wonderland in Singrauli is the women who sell baskets of stones on the roadside. Individually or in groups, the women break stones, and sell them to passing trucks for R80-R90 a basket, a day’s labour. The women are...

Tribal communities are vulnerable not only because they are poor, assetless and illiterate compared to the general population, their distinct vulnerability arises from their inability to negotiate and cope with the consequences of their forced integration with the mainstream economy, society, and cultural and political system. The repercussions for the already fragile socio-economic livelihood base of the tribals have been devastating—ranging from loss of livelihoods, land alienation on a vast...