ARVIND NETAM was, till the mid 1990s, one of the most promising tribal politicians of India. He was deputy minister of education in 1973. He rejoined the Congress in 1998 after leaving it in 1996.

The condition of India’s forest and her forest dwellers is extremely grave. A fresh round of police attacks on tribal people

In the Chaibasa region of the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, India, an abandoned chrysotile asbestos mine is a health scourge for villagers and former mine workers. A massive pile of asbestos waste mixed with chromite has lain atop the hilltops of Roro village for two decades, gradually seeping into the land, water, homes, and bodies of the tribal communities living at the foothills of Roro. To investigate the status of the asbestos waste and its impact on the community and the environment, a fact-finding team made a preliminary assessment.

So does the state forest department...

How has the river that flows through one of the most industrialised regions in India fared since it was first written about in 1993? Down to Earth revisits the coal dust and slurry-ridden Damodar basin to see if anything has changed - for better or worse