BHUBANESWAR: In what can be seen as a missive to embarrass Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the tribal issue, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday alleged that a large number of ‘adivasis’ are in jail in Odisha, for no reason whatsoever, and they should be freed at the earliest.

Peshawar—To ensure access to clean drinking water to the communities of Tijri and Dawr Jan Khan Korrona, the Political administration of FR DI Khan has completed water supply systems that will provide 3,500 individuals with water at their doorsteps. Due to shortage of water, the people of the area had been facing great hardship in gaining access to clean drinking water. The elders of the Tijri and DawrJan Khan Korrona requested the Political administration to provide clean drinking water to their area.

BHUBANESWAR: The Maoist-infested Laxmipur block in Koraput district which hogged the headlines for the wrong reason was back in the news on Tuesday. In a move that will help resolve the current crisis over land dispute, nearly 500 landless tribal families were given pattas under the land allocation programme, initiated by the Odisha Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (OTELP).

HENGBUNG (MANIPUR), May 22 – The Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr S Ayyappan has announced plans to initiate schemes to enhance profitability and productivity to bring back the people by making agriculture prestigious and profitable. He also promised that the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Hengbung village in Manipur’s Senapati district would be equipped with a seed processing unit to supply quality seed to the needy farmers in the region.

Large stretches of salmon-spawning streams and thousands of acres of wetlands would be wiped out if a large-scale mining project were to be built in south-western Alaska’s copper-rich Bristol Bay region, according to a report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The report, while not directly addressing it, is a potential blow to the massive Pebble copper and gold mine operation proposed by an international alliance of mining interests, and opposed by environmentalists and local native groups.

With rich forest and wildlife the Northeast is known as ‘Green Lungs of India’.

The region is one of the seven original biodiversity hotspots in the world, but most of its animals and birds are increasingly ending on food tables not only of the tribals who traditionally take such food but also of others including the large number of forces posted there.There are startling revelations that armed forces also indulge in hunting for food and sports in the border region.

The Centre is set to constitute a Minimum Support Price (MSP) commission to fix ‘assured price’ tribals would receive for collecting minor forest produce. The produce includes tamarind, medicinal plants, bamboo, mahua, sal seeds and tendu leaves. The panel, which would be formed under the tribal affairs ministry, would get lists of products that each state has declared as non-timber forest produce or minor forest produce (MFP).

Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan has said that the research and extension activities carried out by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education have positively helped in meeting the livelihood needs of the rural poor, tribals and those living in the fringe forests and facilitating opening of interface with Panchayati Raj institutions in the country.

She said this while speaking at the 20th meeting of the ICFRE Society at Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi.

Environmentalist Vandana Shiva on Chipko movement