"While a few organisations have been sincerely working in the tribal areas of the state, for many, this comes as an opportunity to make an inroad into that area, which they never did before," said a source in the sector on the condition of anonymity.

This comes as a group of city-based activists along with representatives from Disha and Janpath, a city-based network of NGOs, met here on Saturday. Dwelling upon the myriad issues faced by the tribals in the state, the meeting decided to send a peace mission to the tribal area of Banaskantha. The peace mission will accompany the wounded tribals, who are currently being treated at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

"There has been considerable amount of mistrust among the foresters and the tribals, which culminated into this unfortunate incident," said Harinesh Pandya from Janpath. He added, "The proposed peace mission will work towards bridging the gap between the tribals and the government through a positive dialogue."

The meeting also decided to form an expert committee comprising retired senior forest officials, management teachers from IIM-A and other impartial academics. The committee will study the development and prepare a policy document, which the mission will present to the state government to formulate a policy, which can avert such developments in future.

Meanwhile, Behavioural Science Centre (BSC) is sending a fact-finding team to Vijaynagar on Saturday, which will study the situation and create a chronological sequence of events, apart from an analysis.

Dr. Varsha Ganguli, Director of BSC, alleged that the incident of firing at Antharsubha happened because of the District Collector's unfamiliarity with the local tribal culture. "Tribals carry their weapons at all gatherings," Ganguli said, adding that the Collector pressed the panic button the moment he saw the people armed with bows and arrows, which resulted in police firing and subsequent casualties.

She demanded that the government should immediately withdraw the cases filed against 16 tribals and give adequate compensation to the families of the deceased. She also sought speedy implementation of the Forest Right Act apart from a CBI enquiry to make an impartial assessment of the entire incident.

Tribal activist and Sabarkantha MP Madhusudan Mistry, meanwhile, released a report on the incident. Refuting the claims of large scale tree felling by the tribals, he said that while there have been some tree felling by the villagers, "the story of large scale tree cutting has been made to legitimise any future action by the forest department and the police officers in the eyes of people of cities and the government in the capital."