Environmental Law: NLU Odisha, Assam, Northeast law schools are making tribal rights core of curriculum

National law universities such as NLU Odisha and National Law University and Judicial Academy (NLUJA) Assam are offering programmes which help students understand how forest laws, tribal identity, and land rights are closely linked, and how these issues often come in conflict with government policies and development plans.

According to them, teaching environmental and forest law are important as environmental issues cannot be separated from land and the lives of tribal communities. In states like Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, forests are central to people’s culture and livelihoods.

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Tribal, forest rights

At NLU Odisha, tribal laws are not taught as an isolated subject. Instead, they are woven into courses on environmental law, constitutional law, international environmental law, and affirmative action.

Kumarjeeb Pegu, assistant professor at NLU Odisha said while an elective titled “Tribal Identity and Forest Rights” has been offered in the past, in the 10th semester, the core ideas run across multiple papers.

“Whenever we discuss tribal laws or tribal rights , land is always the cornerstone,” he said. “Whether it is environmental law, international environmental law, or constitutional principles, the question of land keeps returning because land is central to tribal culture, economy, and identity.”

While student enrolment in specialised electives has fluctuated sometimes leading to courses being dropped, the broader trend, he said, is one of growing curiosity. Over the years, more students have shown interest in understanding tribal rights, forest governance, and indigenous claims.

“Almost all the forest laws have denied access to indigenous forest dwellers from accessing the forest landscape. That's why forest rights are an important and significant part of environmental law,” Pegu added.

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Who are tribals?

One of the distinctive aspects of teaching tribal and forest rights today is a deliberate effort to question categories themselves. The term “tribal,” for instance, is a colonial construct, and many communities resist it in favour of their own names and identities. Similarly, the idea of “indigenous people,” widely used in international law, is not officially accepted by the Indian state.

“This is where the conversation must begin — who are we actually referring to?” Pegu said. “Many people speak about tribal or indigenous rights without fully understanding the historical, cultural, and political meanings behind these terms.”

Courses increasingly draw on anthropology, history, and literature, not just statutes and case law. Students read beyond legal texts to understand how land is tied not only to material survival but also to spiritual and cultural life. “The landmark Vedanta-Niyamgiri judgment (2013), for example, is often discussed not merely as a mining or environmental case, but as a recognition of the Dongria Kondh community’s relationship with Niyam Raja, the hill they consider a living spiritual ancestor,” he said.

“In such cases, removing people from land is not just displacement,” he explains. “It is the erasure of a culture.”

Land, forest, human rights

While there is no explicit 'right to land' under international human rights law, bodies such as the UN Human Rights Committee have emphasised that when land is materially or spiritually linked to a community’s culture, displacement can amount to a human rights violation, explained Pegu.

Such studies help students connect Indian forest laws, the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and constitutional protections with debates on indigenous rights across the globe. They also highlight a core tension – most forest laws in India, historically, denied forest-dwelling communities access to their own landscapes.

“Forest rights are not separate from environmental law,” Pegu notes. “They are a significant part of it.”

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Policy and academia

When students study such courses, they are not merely academic exercises. Pegu points to a number of students who have gone on to careers in policy think tanks, environmental governance, and academia — both in India and abroad.

Some have joined leading policy institutions to work on forest economy, land governance, and consent mechanisms. Others have pursued master’s degrees at top-ranked universities overseas, focusing on environmental governance, commons, and indigenous rights. “Rather than corporate law firms, many of these students gravitate toward public policy, research, and litigation related to environmental justice.”

“This kind of teaching gives students a strong constitutional and legal foundation,” Pegu said, adding, “it also prepares them for public services, policy research, and environmental lawyering.”

The Sixth Schedule

According to Thanzakhup Tombing, professor, National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam (NLJAA), the Northeast has a distinct legal setting shaped by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, community ownership of land, and the existence of reserved forests in states such as Assam and Meghalaya. These overlapping systems, he said, often lead to friction between forest laws and customary practices.

“In the Northeast, land and forest governance work very differently compared to other parts of the country,” Tombing said, adding that many forest laws do not fully account for indigenous systems of land use and control.

“Students here cannot study environmental law in isolation,” Tombing said. “They need to see how conservation policies, forest reserves, and development projects affect indigenous communities on the ground.” This, he added, helps students understand environmental law not just as a legal framework, but as something that shapes everyday life in tribal regions.

Pulak Simon, who just completed his PhD from the university says that the focus extends to the unique constitutional framework governing tribal areas in the Northeast. He pointed out that Articles 244 and 46 of the Constitution, along with the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, form the backbone of tribal governance.

The Sixth Schedule functions almost like a mini-Constitution, Simon explained. Autonomous District Councils have legislative, executive, and judicial powers, including authority over forests and land.

Simon agreed that this layered governance often leads to conflict between central laws and local laws, between state governments and autonomous councils, and between development projects and community ownership of land. The Supreme Court’s rulings on scientific mining in Meghalaya, for instance, have overridden several local laws framed by district councils, triggering debates over federalism and autonomy.

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Policy and ground reality

Teachers and students acknowledge a persistent gap between government policy and ground realities. Tribal communities are not static, Simon said; religious conversions, economic pressures, and demographic changes have altered traditional practices. The law has not evolved at the same pace, he added.

There is a growing need for field-based research, documentation of customary laws, and nuanced policy advocacy that understands both community perspectives and the state’s developmental concerns.

Professor Thanzakhup Tombing of NLU Assam said while interest among students in tribal rights and environmental issues is growing, the real challenge lies in bridging the gap. He pointed out that tribal areas often face tensions between forest protection laws and the everyday needs of forest-dwelling communities.

“Students are keen to understand tribal cultures and rights,” he said, but added that advocacy must be based on a clear understanding of both community concerns and the state’s development priorities. Without this balance, he warned, policies risk creating mistrust and conflict instead of long-term solutions.

Rethinking legal education

Despite the complexity, interest among students is growing — particularly in institutions located within or near tribal regions. Newer NLUs such as NLU Meghalaya and NLU Assam are introducing specialised courses and research centres focusing on environmental law, indigenous studies, and customary governance.

What is still lacking, teachers admit, is a sustained, nationwide focus on tribal and forest laws at the undergraduate level. “Very few law schools prioritise this area,” Pegu said. “But for regions like Odisha , Assam, and Meghalaya, these issues are not peripheral, they are central.”

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While few institutions have set up dedicated centres for tribal studies and forest rights, others have integrated these subjects through teaching and research as per the regions’ need. NLU Odisha has a dedicated centre for tribal studies that focuses on research and policy issues related to tribal rights, land and forest governance. NLUJA Assam’s teaching and research emphasise customary law, the Sixth Schedule and forest governance in the northeast, though it does not have a separate centre. NLU Meghalaya too was planned as an institution with strong focus on customary and tribal laws.

Below is a list of courses offered by the law institutions of the country other than the undergraduate programmes offered by institutions which mandates environmental law as a compulsory subject.

Law schools offering courses on environmental law