-IndiaSpend.com Many in Bangladesh have settled on the chars, islands in the middle of the river, formed of the silt that accumulates along the deltaic basin. But the river Meghna is swallowing many of these islands, leaving people homeless. Charfasson (Bhola), Bangladesh: Strong waves gradually wash away the island at the mouth of the sea, and with it the houses, fields, buildings, markets, roads, everything. Over two decades of constant erosion, the island's...

Door-to-door and village-to-village surveys carried out by researchers of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana detected a total of 9,291 suicides that were committed by farmers in six districts of Punjab during the period from 2000 to 2018. Situated in the Malwa region of Punjab, which is known for cotton farming and the prevalence of cancer among its population, Sangrur (2,506) witnessed the highest number of...

-Newsclick.in Following the floods in June, Assam has seen periods of rain deficiency in the last two weeks, disrupting the paddy cultivation for farmers in the state. “Bohag Matho Eti Ritu Nohoi Nohoi Bohag Eti Maah Axomiya Jatir Ee Aayush Rekha Gono Jibonor Ee Xaah.” These lines by Bhupen Hazarika indicate that ‘Bohag’ (the starting month of the year), for the people of Assam, especially the farmers, is not merely a month or a season; it...

-Hindustan Times Kerala recorded the highest number of major landslides in the country in the past seven years, the ministry of earth sciences informed Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Of the 3,782 landslides between 2015 and 2022 so far, 2,239 alone were reported in the southern state. This was followed by West Bengal that recorded 376 landslides, Jitendra Singh, minister for earth science and science and technology, informed the House. Singh shared the data...

-The Telegraph Lessons to take away from the two recent calamities in NorthEast It is never easy to rationalise tragedy. The two witnessed recently in the Northeast are no exceptions. One, the Assam floods in which the state’s two major rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Barak, and their tributaries wreaked havoc, killing nearly 200 people and, at one point, putting close to 4.5 million people in danger of starvation and disease. Two,...