-RuralIndiaOnline.org Poor public infrastructure, unaffordable private medical care and limited access to the state health insurance scheme are pushing Covid patients and their families into long-term debt in Marathwada  Eight days after testing positive for Covid-19, Ramling Sanap died in the hospital where he was being treated for the infection. But it wasn’t the virus that killed him. A few hours before he died, Ramling, 40, had phoned his wife, Rajubai, from the...

-Newslaundry.com Daily wage work has dried up and there’s no help forthcoming from the government. The narrow lanes cutting through farmland are dotted with brick, wood and asbestos shanties. One in particular, located in Dhakephal village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, is lit by a single yellow bulb. It’s home to Swati Sriganga Ramdave, 24, and her family of seven. Outside the house, Swati’s youngest daughter Aarohi, 4, tugged at her grandmother Gitabai’s sari,...

-ThePrint.in A flawed procurement process has resulted in hospitals getting cheap ventilators, many of which are unusable, say doctors even in BJP-ruled states. Maharashtra was witnessing an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths when 150 ventilators arrived at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Aurangabad in the third week of April. The Union health ministry had sent them. The hospital further distributed the machines to other district and private hospitals in...

Forest fires are not just confined to countries like the United States of America (California, 2020), Brazil (Amazon forest, 2019-2020) or Australia (2019-20); they happen every year across many states in India too. Media reports suggest that forest fires have taken place in the recent months in Odisha's Simlipal National Park, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, among other states. Forest fires have also been reported this year in Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou...

-PTI/ The Indian Express Similarly in Maharashtra, the samples of dead crows from Mumbai, Thane, Dapoli, Parbhani and Beed districts have been sent to Bhopal-based ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (ICAR-NIHSAD), it added. The Centre on Saturday said the outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza has been reported in Uttar Pradesh, taking the total number of affected states to seven. However, the confirmation of bird flu in Delhi, Chhattisgarh and...