India’s ‘Alternative To Hong Kong’ Proceeds In Lush Nicobar Island, As Govt Ignores Pleas Of Local Tribals

Over the past 17 years, and most recently in 2022, hunter-gatherers, fisherfolk & farmers of a Nicobarese tribe—inhabiting a rainforest-draped island of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago for about 50,000 years—have pleaded with the union government to return them to their ancestral land. But with a Rs 72,000-crore plan to build a giant port, international airport, power plant and tourism facilities by cutting about a million trees in 130 sq km of rainforest, the government has erected a wall of silence to their requests to return home.

https://article-14.com/post/india-s-alternative-to-hong-kong-proceeds-in-lush-nicobar-island-as-govt-ignores-pleas-of-local-tribals-64fa9d1da1bed

#AndamanNicobarIslands #nicobarese #GreatNicobar #TribalRights #ForestRights #deforestation #andamans #RainForests #environment #EcoDestruction #CivilRights #displacement #UnionGovt #india

Is India Still a Democracy? Political Prisoners Tell Their Stories

During the three-year-long trial against Professor GN Saibaba and the other men, which ran from 2014 to 2017, the prosecution produced no real evidence. Of 23 witnesses presented before the court by the prosecution, 22 were police officers. The only civilian witness retracted his confession after claiming it resulted from torture. While Saibaba’s health deteriorated in prison, Rahi, the social activist and journalist, alleged that he, Mishra, Narote, and Mahesh Tirki were tortured in custody by investigating officer Suhas Bawache.

https://time.com/6305728/voices-of-political-prisoners-from-authoritarian-india/

#PoliticalPrisoners #GNSaibaba #activism #dissent #HumanRights #TribalRights #adivasis #UAPA #DraconianLaws #environment #EcoDestruction #authoritarianism #PressFreedom #FalseCases #torture #StateViolence #UnionGovt #india #books #bookstodon #SuchitraVijayan #FrancescaRecchia