A 2010 survey conducted by the Scheduled Tribes Development Department had found that nearly half of the total deaths in the ST communities over the previous five years were premature or unnatural.

Though India's first National Agroforestry Policy (NAP) announced by finance minister P.

Committee formulating response to Kasturirangan report

The Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, an environmental organisation in the district, has urged the government to reject the recommendations of the Oommen V. Oommen Committee constituted to formulate the State’s response to the Kasturirangan committee report on the conservation of the the Western Ghats.

Committee comes out with a new index of backwardness on 10 indicators

A panel headed by Raghuram Rajan has recommended a new index of backwardness to determine which States need special assistance.
The new methodology ranks Odisha as India’s most backward State, Bihar, which has been seeking ‘special’ status, as the second most backward, and Gujarat as one of the “less developed” States. Goa is the most developed State.

The tropical rainforests of Andaman islands are under threat - not from illegal felling of timber or clearing of forests for development activities - but from being finished off by an invasive spec

The environment and forests ministry Monday introduced in the Rajya Sabha major amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 that seek heavier penalties to check wildlife-related crimes and aim

They can finally look forward to education, health care and economic empowerment

Left untouched by the Centre’s welfare juggernaut, the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes (DNTs) that comprise about 10 per cent of the country’s population can finally look forward to education, health care and economic empowerment among other benefits.

It manipulates data and facts to make a case against Act

Forest rights campaigners have slammed the satellite image-based study on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in Maharashtra as “deeply faulty and obviously biased,” arguing that it manipulates data and facts to make a case against the Act. Countering the report which a private company prepared at the behest of the State Forest Department, a critique by Madhu Sarin and others of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity says the study does not highlight its own data that only two per cent of claims it investigated could actually be “false” even by its incorrect interpretation.

Chairperson of panel for STs unhappy with State’s performance

Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes Rameshwar Oraon is displeased over the tardy implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, by the State governments. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu here on Thursday, Mr. Oraon said the objective of the Forest Rights Act was to facilitate welfare of the tribal people. “The rights of tribal people should be recognised first,” he said, adding that the implementation of the Act was good in Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Certain genetic variations among primitive Indian tribal populations were found to be shielding them against malaria, a new study has found.

Malaria claims thousands of lives across the globe annually and is caused by parasite Plasmodium through the bite of an infected mosquito. While it is known that mutations in genes could lead to genetic diseases, scientists have studied whether genetic variations would lead to either susceptibility to malaria or resistance against the disease.