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Bookshelf
From Juggernaut publishing: There’s a hidden war going on in central India away from the headlines — and Bastar is at the centre of it. Sociologist Nandini Sundar, who has written about Bastar and its people for nearly three decades, has now authored a gripping account of the war between the Maoists and the State….
Read More about Bookshelf: The Burning Forest: India’s War in Bastar
Bookshelf
Book excerpt: Both corporations and governments alike, who seek to consolidate their land ownership, often push for clearly defined tenurial rights rather than have to deal with messy overlapping custodianships. Many scholars have highlighted the limits of tenurial security in achieving conservation and that a tenure creates willing stakeholders in large scale land use change….
Read More about Bookshelf: Business Interests and the Environmental Crisis
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Conflict/Dispossession
Javed Iqbal reports: Months have passed quietly with allegations of day-to-day violence and repression. Throughout the summer, say locals, many adivasis were caught and humiliated by the C60 – Maharashtra’s special anti-naxal force. In interviews, they detailed how they were deliberately humiliated by being beaten on the soles of their feet and on their buttocks….
Read More about In Gadchiroli, the mining of another adivasi god
Dongria Kondh boy Kalia stands in front of the Niyamgiri hill range
Lewis Davids/Survival
Conflict/Dispossession
India is home to about 700 tribal groups with a population of 104 million, as per 2011 census, constituting the second largest tribal population in the world after Africa. Down to Earth magazine examines the many grave threats they face from government, corporations and phenomena like climate change, and our continuing indifference to their plight….
Read More about Spotlight: India’s adivasis and the web of indifference
Conflict/Dispossession
In 2008, GRAIN exposed how a new wave of land grabbing was sweeping the planet in the name of addressing the global food and financial crises. Their new report shows that the global farmland grab is far from over. Rather, it’s in many ways deepening, expanding to new frontiers and intensifying conflict around the world….
Read More about The global farm land grab in 2016: How big, how bad?Conflict/Dispossession
The non-profit Global Witness has documented 185 killings across 16 countries of people defending their land, forests and rivers against destructive industries in 2015. It’s by far the highest annual death toll on record. Communities that take a stand are finding themselves in the firing line of companies’ private security, state forces and contract killers….
Read More about Report: More earth defenders were killed last year than ever before
Conflict/Dispossession
Nitin Sethi reports: The government has made public its draft National Forest Policy, to replace the existing one crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy brings new focus to plantations, growing trees outside forest lands and wood industry….
Read More about Draft National Forest Policy sets up another battle over Forest Rights Act
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CLIMATE CRISIS
Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change’s impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, photographer Ashley Cooper’s work spans over 30 countries. This selection from his new book shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there’s hope too, with the rise of renewable energy….
Read More about From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures
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Conflict/Dispossession
In this excerpt from his new book, published by Hachette India, Rohit Prasad looks at the roles of the different players in the battle between Adivasis, Maoist rebels, corrupt bureaucrats and hungry corporations, concluding that the situation is one of “cooperative plunder”, where two apparently antagonistic forces align for the purpose of siphoning away resources….
Read More about Bookshelf: Blood Red River: A Journey Into The Heart Of India’s Development ConflictALTERNATIVES
In Defence of Life follows the struggles and triumphs of four rural communities resisting large-scale mining projects in Colombia, Philippines, South Africa and Romania. Courageous environmental and human rights defenders from these communities describe how they have suffered and why they are standing firm to protect their families, land, water and life from destruction by mining….
Read More about Video: In Defence of Life: Stories of community resistance to mining
Conflict/Dispossession
Nandita Haksar writes: Ravindra Velip, a 27-year-old tribal activist fighting mining in Goa, is facing the combined might of the state government, the mining lobby and a complicit media. A founding member of green activist group Rainbow Warriors, he was arrested and placed in judicial custody. When he was assaulted in jail, it went unreported….
Read More about How Goa’s mining lobby, government and media ganged up against a young tribal activistConflict/Dispossession
Since its formation Chhattisgarh has become the new destination of domestic and foreign investment. Sunil Kumar’s award-winning documentary Daan Se Raakh (Rice Bowl to Ashtray) captures displacement and industrialization in Chhattisgarh. It critically investigates the impact of unbridled industrialization, privatization of water, and acquisition of agricultural land on the life and livelihoods of the rural population….
Read More about Video: Rice Bowl to Ashtray – Documentary on industrialisation and displacement in Chhattisgarh
Ratan Tata at the Bangalore Aero Show, 2013. The Tata Group is a major player in both mining and defence manufacturing.
Development/Growth
Rahul Varman writes: Bauxite or iron mines are opened up by grabbing people’s lands and homes against great resistance, and UAVs and other increasingly sophisticated weapons are used to quell this resistance. The corporate sector benefits both from the mining, as well as the demand for weapons, demand which is independent of the vagaries of the market system….
Read More about India’s rising Corporate-Military Complex: A critical appraisal
Attackers threw a toxic substance on Adivasi leader Soni Sori
Conflict/Dispossession
Sreekumar Kodiyath writes: The final phase of the Sri Lankan Government’s war with the LTTE in 2009 saw a systematic program to make the affair a private one, by expelling reporters and human rights activists from the war zone. Those who stubbornly remained either disappeared or were detained. The army called it a “War without witnesses”….
Read More about Chhattisgarh: A ‘War without witnesses’ in the making?CLIMATE CRISIS
SciDev Net reports: India, Colombia and Nigeria have the most cases of conflict caused by climate change and environmental disputes, according to a map of global ecological conflict. The Environmental Justice Atlas shows that more than 200 conflicts in India are caused by ecological disputes and scarcities of basic resources such as water and forests….
Read More about Map shows India leads the world in ecological conflictConflict/Dispossession
The Peak Oil Crisis: Iraq on the Precipice From Oilprice.com ISIS now has control of one of three major refineries in Iraq which supplies the motor fuel and oil for power stations for the northern part of Iraq. Let’s assume, however, that before this year or next is out, Iraqi oil exports drop substantially as…
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