On the Ground with Surabhi Singh: Adivasi Struggles Over Land and Forest
June 21, 2025
Newsreel Asia producer Surabhi Singh has travelled across parts of central India, reporting from remote tribal areas in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. In this video, she shares what she saw on the ground – the continuing struggle of Adivasi communities to protect their land, forest and natural resources.
Through these journeys, for the “Mapping India” series, one truth emerged again and again, that for Adivasi communities, land is mor than just land; it is also memory, survival and spirit.
In Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Forest, where coal mining plans backed by the Adani Group threaten to tear through centuries of indigenous life, resistance has been growing. In “Fish Without Water,” Surabhi introduces us to Thakur Ram Orkera, one of thousands who depend on the forest for everything – food, fuel, faith. Now, as forests give way to machines, their refusal to yield becomes an act of quiet defiance.
In Odisha’s Rayagada district, another front of resistance is unfolding. In “Odisha Tribals Demand Justice For Their Land and Livelihood,” Surabhi speaks to Umakant Naik and his neighbours at the foothills of Sijimali. For decades, the hills have given them drinking water, timber and worship. But with renewed mining interests and changing laws, that relationship is under siege. Despite arrests and pressure, the villagers are holding the line.
And in Mayurbhanj district, the displacements have already happened. A story by Surabhi, titled “Food Insecurity of Odisha’s Uprooted Tribes,” follow the lives of Mohanty Soren and Telenga Hasa, two friends now separated by 180 kilometres — one still clinging to his ancestral land inside Simlipal Tiger Reserve, the other evicted and scattered. The forests they lived in, once a source of nutrition and safety, have become zones of exclusion in the name of conservation. Promises of rehabilitation remain largely unkept.
These stories are part of a pattern, a lived map of who pays the price for “development.” Through Surabhi’s lens, we trace that map with the voices of those whose land is always taken first, and whose rights are often considered last.
Watch the three independent stories here:
FISH WITHOUT WATER | Tribals Fear Separation From Forest and Land