Unfettered coal mining is causing unchecked underground fires that threaten human habitation and the environment, writes geologist Dr Nitish Priyadarshi. The haunting inscription that marks the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno could well be true for Jharkhand. For, the underground fires that have been raging in the coalfields of this state over several years are now beginning to engulf its thickly inhabited areas as well. An underground mine fire that has...

PONDICHERRY, India — P.M.L. Kalayansundaram calls himself a human rights worker. He runs an organization that provides a variety of services to villagers in this area — legal aid, financial assistance to help them organize marriage and death ceremonies, and free refrigerated coffin boxes that they would otherwise have to procure at exorbitant rates from private merchants. On a recent afternoon, he told me that he had been determined from...

A UNESCO dossier examines the problems faced by the original tribal inhabitants of the Andaman islands. SINCE the 1780s, a variety of players have vied for space in the Andaman archipelago. Today, apart from the three wings of the country's armed forces, others including rice farmers, timber merchants and academics are trying to push out its original inhabitants from their traditional habitats. For the first time in the past 150 years,...

CBI feels constrained by need to get consent of States to probe offences in their jurisdictions Draft envisages panel for appointment of CBI Director as laid down by Supreme Court Often under attack from the Opposition parties who accuse the government of the day of misusing it, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has urged the government to replace the outdated pre-independence era Delhi Special Police Establishment Act that governs its functioning...

Education for all, concerted efforts to reduce poverty, enhancement of social protection and political commitment have been identified as some of the measures to tackle child labour. On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour on Saturday, several agencies including the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), International Labour Organisation, UNICEF, UNESCO and the corporate sector hailed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE)...