Returning home from work recently, farmer Baidhar Singh was aghast to find his thatched hut in Balasore district, Orissa trampled to the ground. Just a few hundred metres away stood the culprits, huge and grey against the darkening sky: a herd of 65 wild elephants. That was a few weeks ago. Up till now, Singh and his wife are still calling a polythene-covered lean-to home. Singh’s experience has become quite common in...

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Tuesday called for a time-bound commission to look into the anomalies in scheduling tribal communities, and pointed out that there was a huge undercounting of their number. “It is not just the question of numbers. Their right to a share of national resources is not recognised because of undercounting,” she said at a protest organised by the National Platform for...

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday submitted the Working Group on Agriculture Production report to Indian Prime Minister in New Delhi. It is to mention that Indian Prime Minster on April 8, 2010 constituted the Working Group on Agriculture Production under the chairmanship of the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal as members to recommend strategies and action plan...

The team took part in side events, held ralliesAlso highlighted the significance of small-holderA delegation of non-government organisations assembled under the banner “Beyond Copenhagen” has returned here from Cancun, Mexico, after making interventions for bringing agricultural and food security issues to the mainstream climate negotiations at the 16 {+t} {+h} U.N. Climate Summit. The team took part in the side events, held rallies and lobbied with negotiators during the much...

The definition is contested as the answer has immense economic implications. If bamboo is a tree or timber, it belongs to the forest department and can be auctioned to the paper and pulp industry, often at throwaway rates. If it is a grass, then it would be classified as a minor forest produce and people would have the right to cut bamboo for sale or for value addition by making...