Administration argues pulling down their huts will ensure ‘safety of wildlife’

A day after the Union government announced a Rs.100-crore grant for Chukutiya Bhunjia of Orissa, a primitive tribe which lives on the eastern border of Chhattisgarh, 30 huts of the Baigas, another primitive tribe, were razed to the ground by government officials in the western part of the State.
The incident took place on February 18, adjacent to the Bhoramdeo Reserve Forest in Kawardah district. While officials reasoned that it was done to ensure the ‘safety of the wildlife,’ the eviction is in violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006.

New Delhi: The UPA government is likely to reintroduce the Land Acquisition Bill with a mammoth 157 amendments in the budget session of Parliament.

The 26 ‘substantive’ measures the government plans to push through include a provision that in case of acquisition for urbanization purposes, 20% of the developed land would be reserved and offered to the original owners at a price equal to the cost of acquisition and development.

PANJIM: The Union Ministry of Environment of Forests has decreed that Gram Sabha clearance is not necessary for projects like construction of roads, canals and laying of pipelines through forest lands, reversing an earlier 2009 decision.

The order issued to the state principal secretary (forests) by H C Chaudhary, Assistant Inspector General of Forests, says that “…proposals seeking prior approvals of the central government under the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 for projects like construction of roads, laying of pipelines/optical fibers and transmission lines etc

Says they should be allowed to choose facilities such as roads, schools, hospitals and electricity

The Supreme Court has sought the Centre’s view on inclusion of tribal people in the mainstream, saying they should be allowed to choose facilities such as roads, schools, hospitals and electricity in the wider debate over preservation of their habitat. The remarks were made by a three-judge bench on Wednesday in response to Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran’s opposition to the Odisha government’s plan to mine the Niyamgiri hills for bauxite, the raw material that Anil Aggarwal-led Vedanta Group wants for its plant at Lanjigarh.