Dear Reader,

In the forests and hills of Nilambur and Wayanad, a troubling story of Kerala’s exam system is unfolding. Tribal students with genuine disabilities are officially allowed “scribes” – helpers to write their higher secondary papers. But many schools, desperate to boost pass rates, are reportedly securing fake disability certificates and assigning scribes to students who don’t truly need them, especially from tribal communities.

Keraleeyam Masika points out that the practice has become widespread, turning a support meant to provide a level playing field in education into a tool that distorts achievement, masks real learning needs, and deepens discrimination. Tribal organisations argue it undermines students’ confidence and rights, calling for the abolition of the scribe system, cancellation of tainted results, and real academic support instead. The story highlights how a system designed for inclusion can be misused to cover systemic neglect, leaving the very students it was meant to help even more vulnerable.

Lantana camara, an ornamental but invasive species introduced by the British in Kolkata two hundred years ago, has now spread so widely across the country that an estimated 44% of India’s forests are infested and 13.2 million hectares of pasture land are choked with it. The extent of the invasion is so severe that people in affected areas have begun to migrate to cities because their farmlands are covered with lantana, which, once set in, blocks any other plant from growing. With forest undergrowth being replaced by lantana and crops edged out, once-fertile lands no longer yield harvests or forest produce—and with that, incomes are wiped out.

One district in Madhya Pradesh is attempting to change this, reports The Migration Story. In 2012, people in Mandla district, which borders the Kanha Tiger Reserve, began a concerted effort not just to cut down lantana, but to uproot it from its notoriously deep delving roots. Working in groups of four, villagers began to dig out the six foot tall weed, turn it upside down to prevent re-pollination, and then burn it and use the ashes as fertiliser. On average, it takes about fifty people per acre and three years of work for the weed to be completely rooted out. Around nine lakh hectares have been cleared since 2018. The results have been almost immediately positive, with the return of native plants, traditional foods, and arable farmland. With agriculture and forest produce viable again, migration has also reversed, with people returning from jobs in the city to cultivate their fields.

Last month, on 14 November, the Supreme Court of India declined to intervene in a dispute between Crocs Inc, the American footwear company, and several Indian and other footwear manufacturers. The Supreme Court Observer argues that this was a missed opportunity to clarify an important question in Indian intellectual property law about the overlap between design protection and trademark-based 'passing off' claims. Crocs argued that the distinctive shape of its clog, protected by a valid design registration, also functioned as trade dress and a source identifier, thereby justifying a parallel passing off action—a remedy that prevents businesses from misrepresenting their goods as being associated with another brand.

The story points out that High Courts have taken divergent views on whether passing off can rest solely on a registered design or must be supported by additional elements, such as acquired distinctiveness independent of the design. By dismissing the appeal without addressing this conflict, the Supreme Court left unresolved the doctrinal relationship between design rights and trademark protection, prolonging legal uncertainty for rights holders and competitors in design-driven industries.

In Bhojpur, the Son River faces an acute ecological and socioeconomic crisis driven by rampant illegal sand mining and exacerbated by climate change. Once a vast and vital watercourse, it has narrowed significantly, undermining biodiversity and the livelihoods of farmers and fishers. Excessive extraction of yellow sand has deepened the riverbed, drastically lowering groundwater levels, diminishing irrigation potential, and forcing costly alternatives.

मैं मीडिया reports that local testimonies describe formerly abundant aquatic life now on the brink of collapse. Scientific observations reveal degraded water quality and disrupted biological communities. Scholars and officials stress that unregulated mining and climate-induced stressors, such as elevated temperatures and altered rainfall patterns, intensify environmental degradation, threatening the river’s historic role in regional agriculture and ecology.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF