-The Indian Express Pesticide Management Bill should address the anomalies that prevent state governments from booking large pesticide companies. “Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter,” goes an old African proverb, which is also apt to describe the state of the world’s farmers. Farmers are like the hunted lions who need their side of the story told and their sacrifices, agony, courage and fears...

-The Economic Times MANDYA (KARNATAKA): Lingappa is unsure of what the future holds for his family. The 53-year-old coconut farmer in Mandya in southern Karnataka couldn't sow anything on his one-acre field this year because there was not enough water. The trees that should have been bearing fruit are stripped bare by disease. In the midst of all this, he has to find money for his younger daughter's wedding in March....

-Livemint.com The tribal belt of south Bengal has become ground zero of a grim battle with an ever-increasing population of visiting elephants The elephants are here,” Jiten Singh declares without any show of emotion as we arrive at Tapoban (Madhyapara) village. About 65km from Kharagpur town, Tapoban is a tribal hamlet deep within the vast forested terrain known as Jangalmahal, in West Bengal. It is nearing dusk. Ordinarily, the village would be...

-The Hindu In the cotton belt of Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, pesticide poisoning through inhalation has caused 21 deaths in three months. Serish Nanisetti reports on the deadly cocktail of absent regulation, government apathy, and farmers’ desperation that continues to claim lives Geeta Bandu Sonule doesn’t cry any more. Not even when she relives the final moments of her husband Chandrakant Bandu Sonule (40), who died two months ago, after spraying pesticide on...

-Livemint.com SIT probe report on deaths of 40 farmers in Vidarbha during July-September will be made public during Maharashtra assembly’s winter session starting on 11 December Mumbai: The report of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Maharashtra government to investigate the deaths of cotton farmers and farm workers in Vidarbha during July-September will be made public only during the upcoming wintersession of the state legislature beginning 11 December in Nagpur,...