-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Hindu On January 13, 2011, an 18-month-old infant in Howrah district of West Bengal was found to have been crippled by a naturally occurring wild strain of the polio-causing virus. However, no more children fell victim to such viruses over the next one year and India was then removed from the list of countries where polio is endemic. India has remained free of polio, and analysis of sewage samples have...

-The Telegraph Bihar: The increasing problem of fluoride contamination in groundwater in the state has drawn the attention of a professor of University of Manchester. Sandra Downes (56) has been working with faculty members of the water and environment science department of AN College to find the solution to fluoride contamination in groundwater in Bihar. Sources said after arsenic, groundwater is polluted in the state because of the presence of high level of...

-Frontline A report by ActionAid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences highlights the vulnerability and tragic living conditions of thousands of children who take shelter in Mumbai's streets. IN 1988, the acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair made Salaam Bombay!, a poignantly revealing film on street children in Mumbai. The plot revolves around the protagonist, Krishna or "Chaipau", who is kicked out of his home by his mother for having damaged his...

-The Hindu Protect interests of farmers while safeguarding ecology, he says Kochi: Agriculture has become a "legal responsibility" of the state following the enactment of the Food Security Act, eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan said on Thursday. Delivering the inaugural address at the Tenth Anniversary conference of the Foundation of Agrarian Studies here, Prof. Swaminathan said, "Right to Food can be implemented only with home-grown food." Observing that public procurement of coarse cereals was...