By Rupam Jain Nair (Reuters) January 2, 2007.
GIR SANCTUARY, India. - Daya Rakha, 36, was born in the jungles of the Gir wildlife sanctuary in western India and knows little else except how to live off the forest’s resources.

Just as his ancestors did generations ago, Daya ekes out a meager living mainly by tending to his cattle which relentlessly graze in Gir’s lush forests.

But Daya — like millions of India’s forest dwellers — has never been able to call the forest his home. Instead he has been treated as a criminal by authorities as he has no legal right …

By Saswat Pattanayak
Radical Notes

One year ago, on January 2, 2006, I was in Orissa covering the most barbaric and shameful epoch in the aftermath of Kalinga Nagar incidents. 12 tribals were murdered by the Orissa state police, because they were protesting against the illegal, and inhuman encroachment of their sweet little homes by a profit-mongering private industry giant. As many as 13 industrial plants had been declared to be set up in Kalinga Nagar itself, resulting in evacuation of thousands of indigenous people from their own lands, sans adequate compensations, relocation benefits, education or healthcare assurances, let alone …

Development Or Developmental Terrorism? By Prof Amit Bhaduri

It has become a cliché, even a politically correct cliché these days, to say that there are two Indias: the India that shines with its fancy apartments and houses in rich neighbourhoods, corporate houses of breath taking size, glittering shopping malls, and high-tech flyovers over which flows a procession of new model cars. These are the images from a globalized India on the verge of entering the first world. And then there is the other India. India of helpless peasants committing suicides, dalits lynched regularly in not- so- distant villages, tribals dispossessed of …

Major Protest to Shut Down Coca-Cola and Pepsi in India
For Immediate Release
August 22, 2006

Jaipur, India: Over a thousand people marched and rallied in the north Indian state of Rajasthan to demand the shut down of Coca-Cola and Pepsico bottling plants in the state.

Accusing the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kala Dera of creating severe water shortages affecting over fifty villages and producing harmful products, protesters marched towards the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kala Dera, about 40 kilometers from Jaipur.

Water is a scarce and valuable resource in the state of Rajasthan, often referred to as the “desert state”.

At the rally, protesters burnt …

The Daily Star, Staff Correspondent

Indigenous leaders yesterday urged the government to stop illegal grabbing of their land across the country and to recognise their traditional land rights.

They also demanded introduction of permanent settlement system of indigenous land where permanent ownership has not been established yet.

They placed these demands at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city yesterday jointly organised by Bangladesh Adivashi Odikhar Andolan, Bangladesh Adivashi Forum, Adivashi Jagoron Samity and Andar Manik Bhumihin Samobaya Samity.

Referring to recent land grabbing and attacks in Kaliakoire in Gazipur, Parbotipur in Dinajpur, Moulvibazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts area, the …