Returning home from work recently, farmer Baidhar Singh was aghast to find his thatched hut in Balasore district, Orissa trampled to the ground. Just a few hundred metres away stood the culprits, huge and grey against the darkening sky: a herd of 65 wild elephants. That was a few weeks ago. Up till now, Singh and his wife are still calling a polythene-covered lean-to home. Singh’s experience has become quite common in...

No matter how tired we are in the course of a difficult day’s work, there is always the reassuring feeling that at the end of the hard work we’ll go back to sleep in the comfort of our home. But there are millions of people in our cities who simply do not have a home. The homeless of our cities suffer the most; yet they are the most neglected. No...

The indiscriminate use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides over the years has led to deterioration of soil quality and crop productivity in India. According to a study conducted by the central soil water conservation research and training institute (CSWCRTI), Dehra Dun, about 1 millimetre of top soil is lost every year due to erosion. This leads to a total soil loss of 5,334 million tonnes annually, at an average rate...

In what could mean danger signals for malaria stricken North-Eastern region including Assam, a new report has said that opportunities for malaria transmission is likely to linger long enough even as the disease is projected to spread to new areas in the Himalayan region. In the North-Eastern region, there is a likelihood that the windows of transmission of malaria may increasingly remain open for at least seven-nine months and may even...

Inspired by India’s “Green Revolution”, Malawi has sought Indian assistance in its “Greenbelt initiative” aimed at raising agricultural output. The southeast African nation is looking to India to tap its huge uranium deposits. Malawi is also negotiating to sign Double Taxation as well as Investment Promotion and Protection agreements with India. “Our main aim is to get India’s participation in our Greenbelt initiative to increase our farming capacity,” visiting Malawian Trade and...