Structured Legal Framework Must Protect Indigenous Intellectual Wealth

World | Indigenous Rights | Intellectual Property

Unlike tangible artefacts that can be physically transported back to their place of origin, intellectual property theft is a deeply insidious crime, often veiled under legal loopholes, creative expression, media wordplay, globalisation, and the pervasive influence of multinational corporations, writes Gajanan Khergamker.

The recent return of stolen artefacts worth millions from the United States to India marks a commendable step towards repatriating tangible heritage. However, it is but a fragment of a much larger issue that looms globally—one that involves the theft, exploitation, and misappropriation of intellectual property from indigenous peoples and cultures.

COVID Restrictions May Push ‘Criminal’ Tribes To Extinction

India | Affirmative Action
Among humans, it is the indigenous who lives the closest to the environment, to animals, foliage, and a topography, and closely in sync as an extension of his very existence. Yet, over the years, the native has transformed to adapt, with undocumented deft, to urban spaces and modern living. However, in his adaptations too, he has stayed loyal to nature: His friend for live. 

Over the last year and half, however, the COVID lockdown restriction imposed across India hit him the worst, restricting his physical movement, interactions with his ‘family’ of animals and his association with land – his home. 

The native’s tryst with animals is an association that transcends generations together in sharp contrast to the modern-day ‘ownership of pets’ and selective ‘love’ for pedigrees like the Pug spurred solely by Telecom advertisements. 

Power Corrupts On Elephanta Island

India | Environment
It was incredulous yet true! For years on end, Elephanta Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site registering 20 lakh footfalls annually, received power for not more than two and half hours in the night through an MTDC generator; hadn’t a single doctor on the entire island; had no facility for formal education beyond Standard 10th and absolutely no crisis management process in place. And, the island was located barely 10 kms away from India’s financial capital…Mumbai!

Elephanta Island Gets Powerful, Finally

India | Development
Elephanta Island aka Gharapuri is in the news and for all the wrong reasons. That the Elephanta Island, known for housing UNESCO World Heritage Site Elephanta Caves and receives more than 20 lakh footfalls of tourists annually, was shrouded in darkness every night for years on end – 70 in all - dashing all hopes and aspirations of progress for the 1,200 islanders living in three villages on the island didn’t quite qualify as news for the mainstream media.

Matheran Risks Slipping Off Track

India | Environment
“It’s a national shame,” rues Ali Akbar Peerbhoy, the grandson of the founder of the enviable Matheran Hill Railway known to ply the Matheran Toy Train which, today, vies for survival. The red sand, the damp air, the horses and the silence are all under threat. Skewed ‘development’ in its crudest and most dramatic forms through the haphazard maze of ‘roads’ and ‘guest houses’ that have mushroomed all along the pristine zone. Pushy touts and uncouth horse-ride providers operating in flagrant violation of the law have hijacked the very concept of Matheran itself. The elected and governmental authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the scenario.