-The Hindu Cyclonic storms on Tamil Nadu’s 1,076-km coastline are not unusual, and at least once in two years there is some disaster or the other. The common thread running through every such instance is that all claims of preparedness are invariably exposed as either hollow or woefully inadequate. The focus, as well as any claim to administrative efficiency, is solely on rescue and relief operations. What the government is able...

-The Hindu Kuruvai village in Palakkad credited with replacing pesticides with agroecology Kochi (Kerala): The success of a group of farmers in Kuruvai village in Palakkad district’s Vadakkencherry panchayat in cultivating paddy without chemical pesticides has come in for praise from United Nations Environment Programme. It finds a prominent place in a book on replacing highly hazardous pesticides with agroecology brought out by Pesticide Action Network International. The book was released at the...

-India Today The NGT asked Delhi and four northern states to notify steps to check the menace of crop burning and imposed a fine on farmers indulging in such activities. Worried over high pollution level and smog engulfing the Capital, the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday asked Delhi and four northern states to notify steps to check the menace of crop burning and imposed a fine on farmers indulging in such activities. Observing...

-Livemint.com The destruction of almost two-thirds of the state’s cotton crop by the whitefly has forced 15 farmers to commit suicide, pushed hundreds of others into debt An insect has ravaged the cotton crop across Punjab’s Malwa region. The destruction of almost two-thirds of the state’s cotton crop by the whitefly has forced as many as 15 farmers to commit suicide and pushed hundreds of others into debt. A Times of India report...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It's official: 92 acres in the Aravalis have been identified as a landfill site for garbage generated in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Since the area falls under the restricted zone where no non-forest activity is allowed, the Haryana government has started the process for exempting the huge land parcel from the legal provision. For the first time, the Haryana government has officially admitted in an RTI response...