-The Guardian The government's decision to allow major infrastructure projects to go ahead without obtaining consent for forest clearance paves the way for the violation of village land rights, say rights groups Land and tribal rights in India have been dealt a new blow after the government announced last week that major infrastructure projects will be exempt from obtaining consent for forest clearance from tribal communities living in the forest, a decision...

-The Business Standard Indian plantations bloom in Ethiopia at the cost of the livelihoods and homes of the tribals If there is “blood diamond”, there is also such a thing as “blood maize”, “blood soya” and “blood pulses”. These come all the way from plantations in Ethiopia and other countries with repressive regimes. India, which claims to shun blood diamonds coming from African mines that use slave labour, is enthusiastically backing exploitation of...

-The Hindu Koynanagar (Maharashtra): First, a dam, then an earthquake and finally a tiger reserve — families in Satara district’s Koyna have been displaced thrice in one generation. In 1960, the people had to move, paving the way for the Koyna dam; in 1967 following the earthquake and then for the Koyna tiger reserve in 1985, says Jagannath Vibhute, an activist of the Shramik Mukti Dal and one of the many...

-The Times of India Women's groups have criticised RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's view on rape in "India" and "Bharat" for being regressive. But data shows that not only are Bhagwat's views regressive, they're also plain wrong. While the National Crime Records Bureau does not split registered cases of sexual assault by rural and urban areas, Mrinal Satish, an associate professor of law at Delhi's National Law University, used court data to find...

-PTI Lunavada: Tribals in the eastern part of Gujarat feel that both BJP and Congress have failed to address their issues even after 52 years of formation of the state. The tribal voters spread over 12 districts of eastern Gujarat have sway over around 30 seats out of which 27 have been marked as Scheduled Tribes seats after the new delimitation orders. For the last many years, Congress has maintained its upper hand...