More than a million people settled along the Kosi river in the Indian state of Bihar live an uncertain and nomadic life in "floating villages" because of frequent flooding. Whenever Babuji Sah walks towards his village, Birbar, he says he feels like an ageing camel struggling to find his new address in the sand-filled desert. That is because Birbar is forced to move location every three to four years. The pathways...

Plan to conduct an array of sensitisation programme  Farmers will be taught the raising and technical aspects of jatropha farming They will be educated on aspects like digging bore well and disc ploughing Tirupur: Promotion of methods to develop wasteland and subsequently take up large scale cultivation of jatropha on it will be on the top of the priority list for the Department of Agriculture in Tirupur district during the current financial...

In the cotton fields of Vidarbha in central India, grief is a constant companion. Wherever you turn, there are heart-breaking stories of suicide. In the village of Mangi, friends and family are preparing the body of Laxman Tekam for burial. Women are wailing and men have tears streaming down their cheeks. Laxman was a cotton farmer who hanged himself from the roof beam of his small house after his debts...

The Andhra Pradesh government has fixed a target to provide compulsory 100 days employment to 3 million households through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during the financial year 2010-11. Last year, only 1.4 million households were provided with 100-day work in the state. In all, the state is aiming to touch 6.2 million households during the year implying a spend of about Rs 7,000 crore, up 52...

The task of providing water where needed is becoming increasingly difficult across the world. Countries have, in recent decades, been investing in infrastructure designed to alleviate water shortages. But the response has, for the most part, overlooked the problem posed by the deteriorating state of aquatic resources. If the growing crisis is to be effectively addressed, water use needs to be linked with environmental care. In many places, even where water...