-TheHansIndia.com Mulai Payeng, a 57 year old tribal farmer from the Kathino bari village in the Jorhat district in upper Assam expresses surprise when asked if the lack of irrigation facilities or the changes in the rainfall pattern is affecting his cultivation. Payeng belongs to the Mishing community. According to state government data, presently over fifty percent of the irrigation projects are non functional in the state, and besides this environmentalists have pointed...

-TheHansIndia.com Climate Change and its adverse impacts which includes a change in the rainfall pattern and rising temperature is affecting farmers in the state of Assam, located in India's North East The state which is largely agriculture based has a major portion of the state's population engaged in this sector. According to data from the state agriculture department, over 70 percent of the state's population relies on agriculture as farmers, or agricultural labourers,...

-Business Standard The tribal affairs ministry has drafted revised rules on tribal consent which are now being reviewed by the environment, forests and climate change ministry After approving an ordinance that does away with the need for consent of owners to acquire their land for infrastructure projects and other purposes, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is finalising the dilution of tribal rights over forest land, which will ease and hasten handing...

-The Hindu While India and other countries have been opposing a review of their national contributions to tackle climate change, chairperson of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Dr. R. K. Pachauri is firm that unless there is a process of review in place, the direction the world is taking to tackle climate change will not be clear. A periodic review of targets and achievements is a must, he...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The High-Level Committee set up by the Narendra Modi government to review the major laws relating to environment protection has, in its recommendations, worked towards two sets of objectives: one, to separate business from the messiness of governance, and, two, to redraw the line of demarcation between the judiciary and the executive. Manju Menon (manjumenon@namati.org) and Kanchi Kohli (kanchikohli@namati.org) are with the Centre for Policy Research - Namati...