-The Hindu Projects in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by the Environment Ministry Few countries are witnessing such severe direct and indirect devastation on account of the COVID-19 pandemic as India. Yet, there is little attention on the roots of our vulnerability. Our challenge is hardly limited to escaping a virus with lockdowns and masks in the short term, and vaccination in the long term. It would...

-TheWire.in Most of the people studied in the survey lost their sense of job security and said the government should put a robust unemployment programme in place. In order to understand the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the common people, we made 122 phone calls from June 1 to 5, covering 595 people in the business capital and the second largest city of the state of Odisha – Cuttack. The respondents were...

-Down to Earth Less availability of Meat, long-term unemployment increased instances of hunting in Tamil Nadu Wildlife hunters — seizing the opportunity provided by the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) — have targeted animals in Tamil Nadu’s biodiversity-rich areas. The state has a lot of biodiversity: From deciduous forests to the Western Ghats that are home to rare animals and plants. Restricted movement of transport and human...

-Centre for Pastoralism, dated 20th April, 2020 There are an estimated 30-35 million pastoralists distributed across several states in the country. These communities manage a wide range of livestock, through long-distance migrations that often span multiple states. India’s wool, leather, Meat and milk economies are directly or indirectly linked to these communities. This report attempts to capture core problems confronting these communities with the COVID lockdown and identifies solutions to help...

-Hindustan Times Seema Kulkarni of the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (Soppecom), Pune speaks about supporting 500 single and widowed women who do not have ration cards or bank accounts, access food supplies * What is the situation of agricultural village economy in Maharashtra after the lockdown? Maharashtra has been facing an agrarian crisis for some time now. Post-Covid-19 and the lockdown the situation has only worsened. Harvesting operations have come to...