-Outlook The Maoists want a military conflict as it brings more adivasis into their fold. The Indian state's best bet is in ensuring that it wins over the aam adivasis to its side.   May 25th's condemnable attack by the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, which ended up killing and injuring over 50 people from Congress politicians to migrant adivasi labourers, cannot be understood without recognising the Maoist party's explicit political aims. These...

-The Telegraph Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has written to the Prime Minister for a rethink on a cabinet committee's recent clearances to two mining projects in Jharkhand's Saranda Forests. Ramesh has argued that the projects would harm his ministry's Rs 300-crore development plan for the region, alienate local tribals and weaken the fight to contain the Maoists, a ministry official said. The Prime Minister heads the cabinet committee on infrastructure, which gave...

-Firstpost.com After the UPA-II released its self-congratulatory 79-page ‘Report card to the People', National Advisory Council (NAC) member and leading social activist Aruna Roy has come down heavily on the government for its poor performance in the social sector. Roy, an instrumental force behind the Right to Information Act, criticised the government for stalling on essential legislations such as the Food Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill and the Lokpal Bill. Roy spoke...

-The Telegraph Illegal hunting in Arunachal Pradesh primarily for meat on the table or for money from the market may be threatening several protected or rare wildlife species, a survey in the state's Ziro Valley has indicated. Researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India, (WII) Dehradun, have documented hunting of leopards, marbled cats, black bears, orange-bellied squirrels, among other species, mainly for meat, skin, and commercial sales in six villages of Ziro...

-The Hindu     The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues call not for retributive violence but for a deeper reflection on the discontent among the tribals of central India and their dispossession In the summer of 2006, I had a long conversation with Mahendra Karma, the Chhattisgarh Congress leader who was killed in a terror attack by the Naxalites last week. I was not alone - with me were five other members...