-TheWire.in Sukinda, the world’s largest open-cast mining area, is also the world’s fourth-most polluted place – and the cost is carried by its original inhabitants. Sukinda (Jajpur district, Odisha): Outside her mud-walled house, Pitayi Mankidia, 30, is holding her two-year-old daughter Huli, who is crying. Huli’s face is smeared with neem leaves to soothe the pain and itching that is aggravated by the dust in the area. Both mother and daughter have...

-Livemint.com Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, whose report on Western Ghats was rejected by the Kerala government, on what caused the Kerala floods and how the rebuilding process should be carried out Ernakulam (Kerala): Submitted seven years ago on 31 August 2011, ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s report on the biodiverse Western Ghats—a portion of which falls in Kerala—had warned that the combination of massive ecological destruction and extreme weather events trigger disaster. His words proved...

-Scroll.in Questions arise again over Delhi’s welfare delivery system – close on the heels of the starvation deaths of three girls in July. In May, Ram Baran, a resident of Savitri Nagar in Delhi, received a letter from the ration circle office stating that his ration card would be cancelled because he had not collected foodgrains between January and March. The letter added that unless he submitted his Aadhaar number, electricity...

-The Economic Times In the afternoon on August 15, Kollam district collector S Karthikeyan received a call from his counterpart in Pathanamthitta, P B Nooh. He requested five dinghies to be sent from rescue operations in flooded areas in his district. It had been raining incessantly for several days all over Kerala. Most of the reservoirs in the state had to be opened in the previous couple of days, leading to floods...

-News18.com The army of volunteers, including ministers, electricians, plumbers, snake catchers, bureaucrats and others, will camp for the next three days in Kuttanad, the first area to be hit by the floods that have killed more than 300 people. Alapuzha: It’s not often that one sees Kerala’s khadar-clad ministers rack up their mundus, roll up their sleeves and get down to some thorough scrubbing. But the flood-ravaged state has forced every resident,...