-Down to Earth Police stop farmers from using tube wells to irrigate their fields   India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, appears headed for a drought. Seventy-two of its 75 districts (96 per cent) recorded ‘below normal’ rainfall till July 20, 2022, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data. Fifty-NINe of the 75 districts recorded ‘extremely low’ rainfall. These districts are suffering a ‘large deficit’, which means they received less than 60 per cent...

-RuralIndiaOnline.com In this region of the Himalayas, shepherds brave the wet and cold weather to graze their sheep and goats. They also protect them from wild animals on the Gangotri range where they live for up to NINe months a year “In a year we lose many animals to leopards. They come at night and snatch them away,” says shepherd Gaur Singh Thakur. Even the native Bhutia dog, Sheroo, cannot keep them...

-The Telegraph Twitter is making journalism lazy Some sixteen years after the micro-blogging site was created,Twitter occupies more mind space on an hourly basis than its social media rivals. It is currently most used for news breaks in times of conflict,revolution or negotiation and for direct communication by politicians and governments. The rest of the time it offers opinion-mongering by journalists and the public at large and becomes a platform for journalists and...

-The Telegraph The Telegraph reports on a riverine community’s determination to save its environs Once upon a time, when my forefathers were looking for land to settle down, they found this barren sandbar and decided to make it a habitable place,” says Nani Roy, 42, a resident of Manachar. Char is the Bengali word for sandbar. Manachar is the sandbar that extends from Durgapur Barrage to Panagarh in Burdwan district. About three...

-PTI/ The Telegraph Similar concerns echoed for Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, who have been brought to India after reports of attacks on minorities in Afghanistan Secluded within a confined zone in Delhi's Majnu-Ka-Tila, Pakistani Hindu refugees who moved to India with hopes of securing their lives have been surviving in tents and semi-kutcha houses with no access to the basic facilities like water and electricity. Fifty-two-year-old refugee Radha Solanki, who moved to India...