-The New Indian Express BHAWANIPATNA: More than 60 per cent of cultivable land lies infertile in Kalahandi district. Rain has been playing hide and seek year after year pushing small and marginal farmers to the brink. On the irrigation front too, Indravati project has failed to provide succour. Nearly 63 per cent of the district’s population lives below the poverty line. A rough estimate reveals that 30,000 people from 10,000 families migrate...

-The Indian Express Known as the region’s “cow hill”, where locals send their old and feeble cattle to graze, the plateau this summer has seen thousands of cows perish on the hill due to starvation. Karauli: The latest political battle in Rajasthan is unfolding on an unusual turf: a denuded hilltop with hundreds of dead cows. The plateau, which spreads beyond Kochar village in eastern Rajasthan, is at the centre of Congress’s...

-Livemint.com New Delhi: Back from a walk through drought-affected parts of the country, Yogendra Yadav, political scientist and co-founder of non-profit Swaraj Abhiyan, speaks on state compliance of Supreme Court orders, a booming private water market in Marathwada, and why farmer movements are weakest at a time when agrarian distress is at its peak. Edited excerpts from an interview: * You just came back from a trip to Bundelkhand and Marathwada. What...

-PTI Several villages in Bundelkhand region spread over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are facing "acute shortage" of drinking water, cattle deaths along with "inaction" of the state machinery, a survey by Swaraj Abhiyan said. Releasing the survey report, Swaraj Abhiyan co-founder Yogendra Yadav today said 40 per cent of the 43 surveyed villages in Madhya Pradesh were depending on "two or less" hand pumps for their water needs. Among the 79 villages...

-Livemint.com Compensation for crop loss due six months ago is yet to reach farmers, says Swaraj Abhiyan Villages across drought-hit Bundelkhand, a hilly region divided between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, are reporting an abnormally high number of cattle deaths due to acute shortage of fodder and water, said a survey released on Monday. “For cattle the famine has arrived,” the survey by non-profit organization Swaraj Abhiyan said, adding,...