-TheWire.in As one village prepares to take the government to court, another claims panchayat land reserved for scheduled castes was auctioned by proxy to ‘upper caste’ families. Chandigarh: One-and-a-half months ago, Amrik Kaur, sarpanch of village Sekhowal in Ludhiana district, was asked to attend a meeting at the Ludhiana deputy commissioner’s office. There, she was asked to give her consent for the transfer of a portion of the village common (shamlat) land...
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Draft EIA 2020: How it may impact North East -Sayan Banerjee
-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...
More »No free grain in July for 40% of PMGKAY beneficiaries
-The Hindu Only 6% of free chana Due in July has been distributed New Delhi: Almost four out of ten people dependent on free food from the Centre did not receive their July allocation under a special scheme to help tide over the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told journalists on Friday, blaming States for their failure to distribute the free grains and pulses. In fact, as many as 11...
More »Two sides of the same coin: Shrinking water bodies and urban floods
-Down to Earth Water bodies have become even more critical in current times when cities are facing the challenge of rapid, unplanned urbanisation Lakes and wetlands are an important part of urban ecosystem. They perform significant environmental, social and economic functions — from being a source of drinking water and recharging groundwater to supporting biodiversity and providing livelihoods. Their role becomes even more critical in the present context, when cities are facing the...
More »The rest of India must learn from the southern states to reduce maternal deaths for attaining SDG-3 target
The newly released Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2016-18 shows that India's maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) has reduced from 130 maternal deaths per one lakh live births during 2014-16 to 122 during 2015-17, and it further dropped to 113 during 2016-18. According to the Sample Registration System (SRS), the MMRatio refers to the number of women who die as a result of complications of pregnancy or childbearing in a...
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