--Press release by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) dated September 21, 2022 Over One lakh People Already Evicted in 2022. Nearly 1 Million People Faced Evictions in India in the Last Five Years. In 2021, over 36,480 houses were demolished and 2,07,106 people were forcibly evicted across India by governments – at all levels, reveals a new report by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN). The report also finds that in...

-The Telegraph Communities of Chhattisgarh caught in cross-fire between Salwa Judum and the Maoists The ghost of the Salwa Judum, a State-sponsored militia that operated in Chhattisgarh, continues to haunt the displaced Gotte Koya tribals. Before the apex court declared the militia unconstitutional, the Salwa Judum was illegally engaged in fighting the Maoists. Caught between the Salwa Judum and the Maoists, many communities were at the receiving end of the violence with...

-Article-14.com In June 2022, India’s environment minister Bhupender Yadav claimed that the legal rights of millions of Indian Adivasis or tribals had not been diluted in new changes to procedures that govern how Forests are given to industry. But government documents reveal that doing away with the Centre’s responsibility to verify tribal rights had been the environment ministry’s intent since 2019. New Delhi: On 28 June 2022, the union government amended India’s...

-Down to Earth So far livestock-related schemes were only catering to settled farmers, herders The Union government admitted that India’s pastoralist communities fell through the cracks when it comes to them benefitting from various schemes. It has urged states with sizeable population of such communities to work to prevent this. There is a significant population of pastoralists or cattle herders across India who move from one place to another to graze their animals....

-Down to Earth Ministry believes that the Chhattisgarh government cannot transfer these lands for any purpose without the prior permission of the Government of India A news report published in the Indian Express daily August 25, 2022 spurred a debate on the definition of ‘Forest land’, its contentious history and many of the associated facts related to such lands. Ignored completely by the colonial administration and largely unresolved even after independence, many of...