The rail track passing through forest areas in different parts of the country, including Walayar on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, have become a death trap for the wildlife, particularly elephants. Though a hue and cry is raised every time a tragedy strikes, the deaths of a large number of wild elephants in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam and West Bengal remain a burning issue. The recent incidents of train hits in these...

The food distribution agencies of states across India have failed to lift the desired quantities of foodgrains under the additional allocation made recently for the Public Distribution System, says the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the central government’s procurement and storage agency. FCI sought instructions from the Centre in September to offload an additional 2.5 million tonnes for the PDS as a consequence of the reports about poor storage and rotting...

The next stage of a measles immunization drive supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) began today in India, aiming to reach 134 million children and prevent an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 annual deaths from the disease. The children in the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will begin receiving the second dose of their vaccinations as part of a year-long campaign by the...

Assam's fragile peace was shattered on Monday when tribal separatists killed at least 18 Hindi-speaking people, including eight bus passengers, in three separate attacks in the northeastern state of Assam, officials said. Eight people were also injured in the attacks. A police spokesperson said heavily armed militants of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) fired at a bus near Bhoimari village in Sonitpur district, about 250 km north of Assam's...

Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...