-Counterview.net Sharply contesting the Government of India claim that “open defecation has been entirely or largely eliminated” in the Hindi belt, a recent Study, “Changes in open defecation in rural north India: 2014-2018” has found that “between 42% to 57% of rural people over two years old defecate in the open” in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Based on a survey of 1,558 households involving 9,812 individuals, and 156 “qualitative...

-The Hindu ‘Open defecation levels are still above 40% in ODF States; Swachh Bharat has not brought behavioural change’ New research on the impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the rural parts of four northern States shows that while open defecation has fallen and toilet ownership has increased, the percentage of people who owned toilets but continued to defecate in the open has remained unchanged between 2014 and 2018. This indicates...

-TheWire.in Thousands of workers, mostly migrants, have been going hungry because of what they call "environmental injustice." New Delhi: Outside a small room in Wazirpur industrial area, Kameshwar Paswan, dressed in a white vest and red ‘gamcha’ is on the phone. His face is tense as he listens. “Don’t worry, I’ll arrange for it soon,” he says, and hangs up. He had stepped out to take a call from his son in...

-The Hindu But shola forests have remained “relatively unchanged” Kochi: The new year heralds bad news for the high-altitude grasslands of the Western Ghats. Over four decades, the country lost almost one-fourth of these grasslands and exotic invasive trees are primarily to blame, find scientists. Though grassland afforestation using pine, acacia and eucalyptus ceased in 1996, the exotics still invade these ecosystems, confirms a Study published on January 2 in the international...

-The Hindu RTI request for 13 inquiry commission reports rejected The Central Information Commission has slammed the Home Ministry for denying information on 13 inquiry commission reports on communal riots in the country. In response to an RTI request, the Ministry said it was not the custodian of the records sought. Charging the Ministry’s Public Information Officer (PIO) with “causing deliberate obstruction to the flow and dissemination of information…and not furnishing any reasonable...