-The Indian Express The Centre has defended before the Supreme Court its decision to wind up the Justice MB Shah Commission, which was set up to inquire into illegal mining activities across several states. The government, in an affidavit, has pointed out that not only was the original tenure of the panel been extended from 18 to 33 months, the government was also taking appropriate follow-up actions on the basis of commission's...

-The Telegraph Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre's move to implement an ecology panel's report on conservation of the Western Ghats has provoked a call for a 48-hour civil disobedience agitation by the Catholic Church in Kerala, starting Sunday midnight. The Church claims the K. Kasturirangan report, notified on Wednesday, will hit the livelihoods of farmers living in the "high ranges" - foothill areas bordering the forests - and force them to relocate. Green activists deny...

-The Hindustan Times I remember her face but not her name. She was one of the 30 people I met one winter afternoon in 2009 at Basaguda village in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit Bijapur district. A thin, tall woman, she stood at the edge of the group, listening attentively to her neighbour who was narrating an incident of an armed attack on the village that had left them homeless for months. When my...

-The Hindu A unique cell phone-based networking system in Chhattisgarh helps Adivasi Gonds share local news and air grievances. Deep in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, a straightforward, earthy man named Naresh Bunkar, field co-ordinator of the Adivasi Santha Manch, picks up his mobile phone and dials +918050068000, a long-distance number in Bangalore. He immediately cuts off and waits. Within seconds, he gets a call from the dialled number, and he hears a...

-The Hindu Despite accounting for 21.1% - 1.53 crore - of the State's population, Madhya Pradesh's Adivasis are not a force to reckon with in State politics. There are a total of 46 tribes in MP, three of which are classified as ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups'. Bhils and Gonds form more than 70 per cent of the ST population. Kols, Korkus, Saharias and Baigas make up more than 20 per cent. Traditionally...