As fatal rains batter parts of the north Indian hill state of Uttarakhand, following a summer that also saw hundreds of deaths from heat waves, a new assessment out on June 19 from the World Bank warns of increasingly difficult effects of climate change on several parts of South Asia in the next 20-30 years. It argues that extreme weather events are likely to get more frequent, as temperatures rise. The...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Audit to nab sapling killers -Bibhuti Barik
-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The forests and environment department has started a plantation audit to find out the survival rate of saplings planted over the years within the city limits. A total of 9,67,362 saplings were planted in past three years but no one knows the survival rate of the saplings. Forest officials say a survival rate of 70 to 75 per cent is a healthy sign for any plantation drive. But the numbers...
More »No Country For Countrymen -Arun Sinha
-Outlook As the Manmohan Singh government makes evident its unfriendliness to villages, the nation hurtles towards disaster. It's a danger no one wants to face. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been trying for years to make us believe that agriculture is a vast marshland in which a huge population is stuck ankle- to neck-deep and it is his duty to rescue them. "Our salvation lies in moving people out of agriculture," he...
More »Mockery of pre-natal law -Ananya Sengupta
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The year before was tough but last year was tougher for the unborn girl child. According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau, the number of gender-related foeticides leaped from 132 in 2011 to 210 in 2012 - a jump of nearly 60 per cent, making a mockery of laws that ban pre-natal diagnostic tests. The corresponding figures for 2010 and 2009 were 81 and...
More »Following the domestic iron ore trail-Sudipto Mondal
-The Hindu The travails of an official who tried to trace the route, destination of the ore THE STORY SO FAR A six-month investigation by The Hindu shows that 350 million tonnes of iron ore was transported out of Bellary between 2006 and 2010 costing the exchequer over Rs. 1 lakh crore. The Lokayukta report had pegged the loss at Rs. 12,228 crore. Our investigation showed that 200 million tonnes of ore was...
More »