Eminent writer and social activist Arundhati Roy on Saturday alleged India is witnessing a war within itself since independence and is actually a poor super power. "Since the country gained independence there have been wars against tribals, dalits and others in several parts of the country leading to violation of human rights," she said. "Now people are struggling for human rights more than justice," Roy told a conference "Attack on Life,...

Is the government trying to push a new land Acquisition Bill without addressing the concerns of the deprived people who stand to lose their livelihoods? Peoples’ movements and social action groups have charged that the cash-based Haryana and Mayawati models of land acquisition are equally ‘dangerous’ for the landless and the deprived people who get uprooted without compensation or rehabilitation. People’s movements have been demanding that instead of bringing Land...

The minister for environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh’s order stopping Vedanta Aluminum Ltd and the Orissa Mining Corporation from mining bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills to feed the company’s adjacent Lanjigarh aluminum refinery plant located in one of the country’s poorest districts in the name of tribal interest tends to miss the wood for the trees. It is based on the report of a four-member expert group under N C...

More than six decades after Independence, the Tamil Nadu government has woken up to the demands of tribals living in Vettukkadu village, surrounded by the Mullaiperiyar river and thick jungles of the Western Ghats, by opening a part-time ration shop in their area. This is the first government project in the village, which is largely inaccessible due to its location between thick Forests and the Mullaiperiyar river. No government scheme, including...

The Meena Gupta Committee formed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to look into forest rights and other issues involving Posco project, today visited the Jatadhari river mouth, site of the project’s proposed captive port, in its second trip to the state in less than one month. Posco proposed to set up a captive port at Jatadhari river mouth, 10 km from Paradip port, on 500 acres of...