-Scroll.in/ India.Mongabay.com The Gond community has decided to bury their dead instead. For the Gond community, one of India’s largest Adivasi people, cremation is a part of the final rites when someone dies – the dead body is put atop a pile of wood and burnt to ash. But realising that they were faced with a choice between holding on to an ancient ritual and protecting their environment, which they consider sacred,...

-The Hindu Mega residential schools are herding in large numbers of tribal children, ‘mainstreaming’ them rather than preserving their language and heritage Tasvir, a young poet-author at Muskaan, a learning centre in Bhopal, tells us how writing can be used to empower his historically stigmatised community: “Pardhis have a rich history. But the way others label us today is wrong. I believe we should start writing and publish our stories. Our lives...

-Hindustan Times Among the major concerns of the gram sabhas with the proposed acquisition of the forest land is that it is being done without their consent and even before the land is diverted under the provisions of the forest conservation act Ten gram sabhas from Chhattisgarh’s Korba district, mainly consisting of people from the Gond tribe, have raised objections to Centre’s intention to acquire 712.072 hectares (ha) of land for mining...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org Months after walking home 800 kilometres in terrible conditions, migrant labourers in Maharashtra’s Gondia district recall their journey on foot from Telangana during the April-June period of the lockdown When their options ran out, Vijay Koreti and his friends decided to walk home. It was mid-April. India was under a strict lockdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. And they wondered how long they could remain stranded in their small shanties in...

-Hindustan Times In April 2017, just 100 meters from this village, Burkapal, 25 personnel of 74th battalion of the CRPF, including an inspector-rank officer, were killed in a deadly Maoist ambush. Burkapal (South Sukma): Deep inside the Sukma jungle, the serenity of the small village Burakapal, situated just 200 meters from nearby security forces camp, is disturbed only by women nonchalantly engaged in their chores and kids boisterously playing with slingshot. A few...