-The Indian Express Locusts normally arrive during July-October, but have already been spotted in Rajasthan. At a time India is battling Covid, they present a new worry with their potential for exponential growth and crop destruction. On April 11-12, scientists at the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) observed groups of grasshoppers at Sri Ganganagar and Jaisalmer districts of Rajasthan. But far from ordinary hoppers, these were desert locusts — the same destructive migratory...

-The Indian Express Kanchi Kohli of the Centre for Policy Research said, "Environmental laws need to be strengthened and not relaxed as is the draft EIA. For instance, the gas leak that in Visakhapatnam today; while this is an accident, there will now have to be an investigation to see whether this was a lapse." After receiving numerous representations for extending the notice period of the draft Environment Impact Assessment notification 2020,...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Alleging that the Centre was diluting environment protection laws to allow construction in ecologically important areas, citizens and environment groups have filed 3,971 objections against the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 proposed by the Union environment ministry. On March 12, the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) presented the new rules that will replace the 2006 EIA notification, which is presently in force, in...

-The Telegraph 'The base of the MGNREGA beneficiaries needs to be broadened by including more deserving people as its beneficiaries' Ranchi: The rural job guarantee law can be a saviour for scores of workers who have lost their jobs during the ongoing lockdown and are returning to their villages, a group of social workers have underlined. Jharkhand NREGA Watch, a group of social workers who describe it as a forum of concerned citizens,...

-Outlook India Vinod Kapri, an award winning film-maker, spoke to Outlook about the arduous journey of the migrants, the highs and lows of it, and what gave him the impulse to pursue their story. Vinod Kapri is a film-maker who travelled with seven migrant labourers from Ghaziabad to Saharsa, Bihar for seven days and seven nights. The former journalist is also the writer and director of award-winning 2018 film Pihu. He spoke...