28-Oct-2019
The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 sought to recognise forest rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes (FDSTs) who have been occupying the land before October 25, 1980. This Bill did not recognise communities which depend on the forest for their survival and livelihood but don’t constitute forest dwellers or Scheduled Tribes. After…
23-Oct-2019
Bhumi Adhikar Andolan and forest rights groups have planned multi-level protests in response to the unrelenting violation of people’s rights and dilution of Forest Rights Act, despite a Supreme Court stay on evictions. From November 17, 2019 onward, state, district and village level actions have been planned by movement groups to protest these violations. The…
22-Oct-2019
प्रमिला ताई म्हणतात कि ४ ऑक्टोबर रोजी आम्हाला कळले कि आरे मधील झाडे कापण्यात येत आहे त्याचवेळी आम्ही सर्वजण तिथे गेलो आणि त्यांना थांबवण्याचा खूप प्रयत्न केला. आम्ही खूप विनंती केल्यानंतर आम्हाला आत सोडण्यात आले परंतु त्यापूर्वीच त्यांनी ४०० पेक्षा जास्त झाड कापली होती. तिथल्या जवळच्या एका मैदानात आम्ही सर्वजण जवळपास अर्धा तास बसलो होतो…
22-Oct-2019
Roopak Chaudhari, the then-Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, filed a counter affidavit in the Writ Petition Wildlife First v. Union of India (W.P. 108/2008) raised in the Intervention Application
22-Oct-2019
The Bombay Natural History Society, the Wildlife Trust of India, the All Assam Tribal Youth League, and the Wildlife Society of Orissa filed a Writ Petition against challenging the validity of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (the FRA), particularly its Chapter II and III concerning forest rights…
22-Oct-2019
In 2008, Wildlife First along with a few other NGOs filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court of India challenging the constitutional validity of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (the FRA). The Petition based this contention on following grounds: That the FRA was violative of Articles…
21-Oct-2019
मुंबई के आरे जंगल को मेट्रो प्रोजेक्ट के लिए काटा जा रहा है। सरकार ने तमाम नियम कानूनों को दरकिनार करते हुए हाल ही में पेड़ों की कटाई रात में करा दी थी। इस मामले को लेकर आरे में रहने वाले लोग ही नहीं बल्कि मुंबईकर भी विरोध कर रहे हैं। इस मामले पर वरिष्ठ…
26-Sep-2019
इस प्रस्तुति में हमने उन चीजों को तलाशा है, जिनकी वन भूमि पर रहने वाले लोगों को अपनी जमीन पर हक की दावेदारी के दौरान जरूरत होती है. हमने यह पता करने की कोशिश की है कि वनाधिकार कानून 2006 के तहत अपनी जमीन पर दावे के लिए किन चीजों की जरूरत पड़ती है? क्या…
19-Sep-2019
The Van Gujjars are a transhumance tribe of pastoralists belonging to the Himalayas. Their livelihood and subsistence depends primarily on their cattle. During summer they walk upto and beyond 12,500 ft in the mountains and trek down on the onset of winter. Ghulam Mustafa Chopra and I started our journey from Dehradun to Sakhri on…
17-Sep-2019
A clearly worded communication sent by UN human rights experts to the government of India urges the rigorous implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA, 2006), suggests a more democratic and legal way of approaching individual and community claims under the law and points out the dangers of the imminent evictions of millions of…
12-Sep-2019
In a significant step, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), India’s foremost nature conservation organisation, has withdrawn from the array of parties who filed a petition in Supreme Court as long back as in 2008 challenging the constitutional validity of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights), Act 2006 (FRA, 2006).…
12-Sep-2019
In a major breakthrough for Adivasi organisations and advocates of rights of forest dwelling communities, the Supreme Court of India has admitted all the 19 intervention applications that had been filed before it urging it to stop the eviction of millions of forest dwellers. Filed by different sets of directly concerned individuals and organisations, all…
12-Sep-2019
The state of Maharashtra has held the District Level Committees (DLCs), part of its own bureaucracy, accountable for “unlawfully rejecting the land claims” of lakhs of Adivasis and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) as reported by Huffingtonpost on September 11. The DLCs comprise officers from Revenue, Forest and Tribal Affairs departments and three nominated members from…
11-Sep-2019
Adivasis and forest dwellers of a village in Dudhwa National Park offer a point by point rebuttal to the fallacious claims of the Forest Department submitted as “grounds” to reject community forest rights claims (CFR). The villagers had submitted the claims as long back as in 2013. On July 31, 2013, forest dwellers from 17…
09-Sep-2019
In a compliance affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in an on-going litigation by Wildlife First, challenging the constitutional validity of the law, Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA), the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government acknowledged the historical injustices and the marginalized nature of tribal communities and Other Traditional…