Nearly a year after Tadmetla in Dantewada hit national headlines with the massacre of 76 CRPF jawans, grief-stricken villagers in Dantewada alleged that security forces burnt down more than two hundred homes, sexually assaulted a woman and took away two men on March 16. Tadmetla has been scorched and reduced to rubble by the police, they said. In detailed and gruesome accounts given to journalists, the tribals alleged that five days...

With 1.8 billion people threatened by absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world’s population facing potential shortages, countries must better protect and manage forests to ensure the provision of clean water to vulnerable communities, a United Nations-backed forum warned today. “Forests are part of the natural infrastructure of any country and are essential to the water cycle,” said UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forestry Department Assistant Director...

Rita Sharma, Secretary of India's National Advisory Council (NAC), has been appointed to a new commission on climate change to be chaired by Britain's chief scientific adviser Sir John Beddington. The new Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, has been set up by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security program (CCAFS). Sharma is among 13 members of the commission which, in...

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's visit to Jaitapur didn't cut any ice with locals protesting the 9900 MW nuclear power project planned there. Soon after, several people were arrested in a case of rioting filed in December, the arrest of Dr Milind Desai, a local protester who was stopped by industries minister Narayana Rane while slamming the government on stage has further incensed the situation. Activists now allege that the arrests are...

Assam has witnessed an alarming rise in patients suffering from glaucoma, a disease that causes permanent blindness. According to a conservative estimate, out of every 100 patients visiting the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO) here, nearly 10 suffer from glaucoma. Of the visually impaired in Assam, 10 per cent are victims of glaucoma compared to 5 per cent five years ago. RIO’s director C.K. Baruah told this correspondent that though many suffered...