-Down to Earth The environment ministry on February 22 wrote to all states, seeking their views on the matter, according to documents Does granting forest clearance to an agency lead to its name entering land title records? The Union environment ministry recently asked this to all states and Union territories. The letter dated February 22, 2021 from Assistant Inspector General of Forests Suneet Bhardwaj came on the back of repeated requests by the...

-Down to Earth The ‘real owner’ of forest land is still the forest department. Such brazen violation of the law betrays a systematic attempt to implement FRA, reducing it to a symbol rather than a tool of empowerment The Dangs, the smallest district in Gujarat, is a thickly forested and tribal-dominated region that has been away from the ‘developmental’ paradigm till today. Some 77.5 per cent of its area is under forest cover,...

-The Hindu The gender gap in the agriculture sector will only widen more with the current farm laws Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan once said, “Some historians believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out hunting in search of food, women started gathering seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point...

-Article-14.com The Uttar Pradesh government is entangling Dalits, Adivasis, who demand land rights or protest displacement, in cobwebs of criminality by using its version of a colonial law meant to unconstitutionally exile and humiliate ‘goondas’. Mumbai/ New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has filed more than 25 criminal cases against a 65-year-old Dalit farmer called Shyamlal Paswan, ever since he sought formal rights to the land he farmed. Under the Forest Rights...

-The Telegraph A large segment of the protesters who travelled are Adivasis fighting for their land titles under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 The tent seemed more spacious and the winter didn’t bite as much. After spending four days on the road in a cramped tempo with 14 others, Chhagan Chaudhari, 60, extended his legs and wrapped himself with a thick blanket as he prepared to sleep on December 25 night in...