Land rights: In India’s flood-prone Assam, hill settlers hold out hope for titles
RINA CHANDRAN reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation on the battle over land rights for people living in informal settlements…
India’s poor risk loss of privacy, land in drive to digitise records
New Delhi, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation A push to digitise land records in India to establish ownership and minimise conflicts has raised concerns over privacy for poorer communities and could make them more vulnerable to evictions, legal and technology experts said on Monday. India’s national land record modernisation program seeks to re-survey lands, verify and upgrade […]
India’s tree planting, conservation push sparks land conflicts
New Delhi, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation A drive to plant trees and conserve areas for wildlife is triggering conflicts over land in India, with poor villagers and Indigenous people most at risk of losing their homes and livelihoods, researchers have warned. India is aiming to increase its forest area and green cover to a third of […]
India’s Dalits protest against plan to develop common land
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Protests have flared in the Indian state of Punjab over a government plan to use common land for industrial development, a move that activists and analysts said last week would deny lower-caste Dalits their land rights. The state government last month approved a proposal to amend a 1964 law to include […]
Court battles underline complexity of India’s myriad land laws
BangkokThomson Reuters Foundation Recent court rulings have underlined the complexity of India’s numerous land laws, which have sparked conflicts and made it harder for poor farmers and indigenous people to access justice, analysts and lawyers said. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that indigenous people in Meghalaya state owned their land and its resources, and […]
In rare move, Indian state to return unused land to farmers
Thomson Reuters Foundation Farmers in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh are getting back land that was taken from them more than a decade ago by the government because it was not used, a rare move in a country riven by conflict over land. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel of the Congress Party, which won a state […]