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
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…
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…
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In a significant step, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), India’s foremost nature conservation organisation, has withdrawn from the array of parties who filed a petition in Supreme Court as long back as in 2008 challenging the constitutional validity of the Scheduled Tribes and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
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…
10-Sep-2019
With growing conversation around forest rights, we need to understand how India’s Adivasis and forest dwellers have played a key role in protecting forest cover and biodiversity. It is also important to examine their culture and history of living in harmony with nature and see for oneself how their existence is symbiotic with the forests…