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The recently released India State of Forest Report made the headlines for the finding that the forest cover has been increasing. The fine print of the report and other studies though suggest that the government is covering up the continuing loss of richly biodiverse forests with data on the increasing commercial monoculture plantations that leave Adivasis out of the picture, reports Goldy M. George

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Is the attitude of the media towards the happenings in tribal areas till the initial years of the 21st century not indicative of the fact that the communication structure that was put in place during the Santhal uprising was inherited by the mainstream media and it continued to serve the interests of everyone except the tribals?

Walter Fernandes says the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 clearly poses a threat to Tribal language, culture and identity in Northeast India. He dismisses the theory that the migration to the Northeast is the result of religious persecution in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshis come for land, he says. Excerpts from his interview with Goldy M. George

Prakash Ambedkar urges the nation to stand up to the BJP conspiracy to alienate the Muslims. He says that the CAA is a ‘black law’ that is dangerous for the Dalitbahujans. Nawal Kishore Kumar interviewed him

The Mysore University professor of media studies says implementation of reservation in India’s private sector – which includes most of the media organizations – is the surest way to make the media more representative

As the media remained engrossed in the unveiling of the 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing next to it, and the colourful balloons floating over it, it failed to see 75,000 Tribals peacefully protesting, black balloons released not too far away from the statue and a black flag raised atop a nearby hill. Kumar Sameer reports

Recently, Maharashtra police arrested five intellectuals and social activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence. The Supreme Court has ordered that they be placed under house arrest till 7 September. The arrests have triggered a debate. Amid this debate, Premkumar Mani issues a rejoinder to the queries raised with regard to one of his articles

While only 7.5 per cent seats in the Shiksha Shastri course are reserved for STs, they account for nearly 30 per cent of all students in the course across the country

Recently, while burning copies of the Constitution at Jantar-Mantar in New Delhi, the savarnas raised anti-Modi slogans. They have been using social media, too, to vent their ire at the prime minister. Siddharth finds out what has set off this trend