-The Indian Express Punjab’s unique cattle breeding-cum-milk sale dairying model is under threat from gau rakshak activism and the Centre’s new animal trading rules. Randhawa and Gill are amongst Punjab’s many dairy farmers who have made the state into a major supplier of not just milk, but also milch animals. Gurdaspur (Punjab): “When there’s no land in our name, how would we now buy or sell cattle? Are they saying we...

-The Telegraph Jamshedpur: As water scarcity forces many urban residents to rely on tanker dole, a village around 35km southeast of Jamshedpur enjoys piped drinking water 24/7 thanks mainly to self-help. All 1,617 residents of over 300 households of Durku village in Kuldiha panchayat, Potka block, get safe tap water to drink. The reason behind it is surprising. Swajaldhara, a UPA-I drinking water scheme based on self-financing, which largely failed in the country...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-VillageSquare.in Recent amendments to laws that govern the use of land owned by tribals in Jharkhand has led to a rash of protests because local communities feel that they might lose their land and livelihoods to industrial development Last year in May, when the Jharkhand government announced to remove handcuffs from all the statues and pictures of Birsa Munda, the indigenous people of the state lauded the newly appointed first non-tribal chief...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru: “There is no wateror fodder this year, and it has become tough to manage my three cows,” says Nagamma, a dairy farmer at Maradevanahalli village in Maddur taluk. The cows and her one-acre farm are her only sources of livelihood. “The milk yields have reduced: these days I get only about 5-6 litres, against 10-12 litres earlier,” she adds. The Maradevanahalli village panchayat provides about 200 litres...