In a decision that will affect the status of over 100 acres of land in north Mumbai suburbs, the Bombay high court on Monday upheld Maharashtra government's action of declaring a swathe of private lan

"People need not worry,' says Deputy Conservator of Forests Bhaskarrao Walimbe on the Bombay High Court's order on Monday declaring over 100 acres of land suitable for acquisition as forest land

A dispute over the rights of tribals to forestland in Gujarat took a violent turn on February 13 when two tribals were killed and three others injured in a police firing at Polo in Sabarkantha

The ministry of tribal affairs has stressed the need for implementation of the Forest Rights Act in time bound manner, urging the states to complete preliminary work for identification of beneficiaries by the middle of March. In two-day meeting of state secretaries of tribal development that concluded in Delhi today, secretary of the ministry of tribal affairs G.B. Mukherji said the Centre was giving priority to the implementation of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

If the pristine Polo forest of Sabarkantha had not been violated, and two tribals killed in police firing on Wednesday, probably the state authorities would not have understood the gravity of the new Tribal Rights Act.

on january 1, 2008, the government after much vacillation notified the rules of Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi- tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The day before, it had notified "critical tiger habitats' in 28 existing and eight proposed tiger reserves. It scored on both tiger conservation and protection of tribal rights.

gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's attempt to appease tribals has backfired. On Gandhi Jayanti Modi handed over the ownership of forestland to 30 tribals and also promised to regularize the 2,204 claims over forestland. This, experts say, was in clear defiance of the Supreme Court ruling which barred any diversion of forestland without its nod.

the Supreme Court on August 24, 2007, ordered Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh governments to respond to a petition to clarify the status of at least 1.2 million hectares (ha). Called Orange area

While the group of ministers has started deliberations on the pros and cons of the proposed national tribal policy, activists have raised questions about its utility. The policy aims at social,

in what is seen as a vindication of the struggle for land rights, and a political victory, the police in Uttar Pradesh's Sonebhadra district withdrew nsa (National Security Act, 1980) charges