Call for Papers: An Urgent Scholarly Opportunity

The Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) invites high-quality, original research papers for its special issue “Twenty Years of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in India: What after Tenure?” to be published in January 2027. Guest edited by Divya Gupta, Priyanshu Gupta and Gautam Prateek, this issue examines not just rights recognition but the lived realities, institutional challenges, and futures that follow—or are foreclosed—under the FRA.

Full details: https://www.epw.in/call-papers-fra

In the current context of Manipur, where the FRA remains legally applicable yet a near-total non-starter, the stakes could not be higher. The ongoing ethnic conflict (2023–2026) between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities has weaponised forest narratives around encroachment, poppy cultivation, and conservation, while pressures to reform hereditary chieftainship (under the 1967 Act), aggressive mineral exploration by the Ministry of Mines, and overlapping legal regimes have intensified tenure insecurity and displacement. This makes Manipur a powerful lens to interrogate EPW’s core themes — lived recognition amid conflict, differentiated outcomes, institutional politics, and post-tenure futures — offering urgent insights for Northeast India and beyond.
Researchers working on forest rights, customary governance, ethnic conflicts, political ecology, or environmental justice are strongly encouraged to submit empirically grounded Special Articles (5,000–7,000 words preferred).

Deadline: 15 July 2026
Submit to: epw.fra@gmail.com with subject line “EPWFRA@20 Paper Submission.”

Don’t miss this critical platform to influence policy and scholarship on forest justice in turbulent times. Submit your paper today.