-Hindustan Times The Rs 7,000-crore sector in Himalayan states reels under high temperature, low rainfall The drought-like situation prevailing in the northwest Himalayas may spell bad news for the Rs 7,000-crore apple economy that sustains people residing in the upper regions of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. This winter has been one of the warmest in the last decade, weather department officials said. Apple Orchards usually need 500 to 1,000 chilling hours (with temperatures ranging...

-Business Standard CM Virbhadra Singh recently announced a programme for developing varieties that require less chilling and can survive in low altitude areas as well Climate change is impacting India’s agriculture in varied ways. It has, for instance, cast a shadow over traditional apple cultivation in Himachal Pradesh (HP).   HP’s  apple belt has been predominantly spread across the districts of Shimla, Kinnaur, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba, Sirmaur and Lahaul-Spiti. These have seen a...

-The Hindustan Times India has driven the truck of development - loaded with tar, bricks, glass, concrete...the works - right through its most treasured and fragile green spaces in the last decade. While major cities like Delhi and Mumbai sacrificed green cover for real estate, the country's finest wildlife corridors have been ceded to indiscriminate industrialisation. In the absence of a clear policy to balance development and environment, the Aravallis in Gurgaon,...

-The Hindustan Times Far from the neatly trimmed lawns of India Gate that so often reverberate with cries for justice, far also from the corridors of power where ministries recently squabbled over the right age for consensual sex, lie 197 districts - yes 197, read the figure again - where children are regularly abused. In these districts -- all ridden by conflict -- words like illegal detention, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, torture...

-The Hindu A NABARD survey says middlemen funded by banks have kept growers captive to high-interest loans Jammu: Kashmir's acres of undulating Apple Orchards may soon be waste lands, a survey by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) accessed by The Hindu shows. The Rs. 4,000-crore industry has been brought to its knees by a network of middle-order market functionaries comprising pre-harvest contractors (PHCs), commission agents (CAs) and wholesalers...