Rattled by the spate of honour killings in northern states, the UPA government is preparing a legislative route to amend Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provide a deterrent punishment against khap panchayats, which order death penalty to young couples who marry defying caste barrier. "We are seriously considering amending Indian Penal Code to make honour killing a separate and distinct offence and provide deterrent punishment," a top home ministry source...

Study claims modern farming threatens nomadic cattle herding.  Nomadic herders who move their cattle ceaselessly across some of the harshest environments in the world in search of grazing land are vital for Africa’s economic prosperity, but their way of life is being undermined by governments, conservationists and large-scale farmers, according to a study. Millions of hectares of land traditionally used by pastoralists in Ethiopia, Senegal, Mali, Chad, Kenya and other...

Another food crisis? This time it’s not shortages but prices—a plain failure of responsive policy and execution. Zooming food prices are raising political temperatures yet again. The rumblings, for once, are not merely restricted to the opposition parties, but evident within the ruling coalition as well. Though attacks from across the political spectrum have become a bit subdued of late, the target remains Union agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar. And...

Three years ago, Donel Ajai Courtney came to Bastar for the first time as a tourist after his mother told him about the tribal heartland in Chhattisgarh. Now this 33-year-old lawyer in the United States runs a ‘Dhurwa patasala’, a unique school that aims to protect and revive the tribal Dhurwa dialect and the community’s fading culture and traditions. Every Sunday afternoon, more than 35 children and a few elders...

DINDORI: While an interface between tradition and technology often leads to the surfacing of conflict-inducing fault lines, just sometimes the two integrate seamlessly to alter lifestyles of those who experience them. One such example is German technological assistance changing the lives of Baiga tribals of Dindori district. Tribals of the Chhapra village in the district, who still trade through the barter system, have achieved a great degree of self-sufficiency through...