India Climate Disinformation and the Forest Rights Act: The PM-JUGA Gap
India's PM-JUGA campaign faces criticism as an Asia Centre report reveals how climate disinformation is used to subvert Indigenous rights under the Forest Rights Act.
They've shaken hands, but the fist remains clenched. In 2025, the Indian government launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan (PM-JUGA)' to supposedly fulfill the promises of the 2006 Forest Rights Act (FRA). However, activists and experts argue that this campaign isn't a sign of progress but a mask for two decades of institutional failure.
How Climate Disinformation Subverts Legal Protections
According to a recent report by the Asia Centre titled 'Climate Disinformation in India: Subverting Indigenous Peoples’ Rights,' the issue isn't a lack of laws but their active subversion. State and corporate actors are using climate disinformation as a tool to render hard-won rights unenforceable. The report identifies four key types of disinformation: biased environmental data, the promotion of destructive 'green' solutions like solar parks, denial of climate-linked deaths, and the outright rejection of climate science.
The Erosion of Traditional Stewardship
When harmful projects are rebranded as 'green,' climate communication becomes a mere PR exercise. This alliance between the state and corporations limits Indigenous Peoples' access to information, turning Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) into a tokenistic ritual. By labeling traditional farming as 'backward' and Indigenous communities as 'encroachers' on their own ancestral lands, the state justifies forced evictions and suppresses local leadership through gendered harassment and baseless charges.
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