-The Hindu They have not got many of the benefits that the new laws threaten to take away. As the movement against the agricultural reform laws builds towards its one year anniversary, it is clear that the bulk of farmers in eastern Indian States have not been as motivated to join the agitation as their counterparts in the northwest, as they have not even experienced many of the benefits that the laws...

-The Hindu The densely populated slums on the hilly slopes of the Mumbai suburbs are sitting on deathtraps as the recent disaster in Chembur demonstrated. Alok Deshpande reports on the tragedy that took lives and swept away houses, once again highlighting the need for a comprehensive and sustainable plan for the ever-expanding city Subhash Ghashing, 21, took out his mobile phone and logged on to play an online warfare game at around...

-Down to Earth Shoreline armouring can increase damages by $723 million for a single flood event Sea-level rise due to climate change has threatened millions of lives and exacerbated infrastructure costs in building embankments and seawalls. These flood-protection constructions, however, heighten the risks of flooding and cost greater financial damages, according to a new report. "Protection of individual shoreline segments (5 to 75 kilometres) can increase flooding in other areas by as much...

-Down to Earth The region, with eight per cent of India’s total geographical area, has 25 per cent of India’s forest cover India’s northeastern region — comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura — is a unique biodiversity hotspot. The region, however, faces many environmental problems. Successive Indian forest surveys in 2015, 2017 and 2019 reported net deforestation of 628, 630 and 765 square kilometres in the region respectively. This...

Poisonous snakebites have killed more than a million Indians in the last two decades, finds a recently published article entitled Trends in snakebite mortality in India from 2000 to 2019 in a nationally representative mortality study. Published in the open access journal elifesciences.org, the research-based study has found that the country accounts for nearly half the total number of annual deaths in the world caused by snakebite envenoming. Who are the...