-The Hindu The lives of tea-estate workers in West Bengal have worsened in many aspects over the years The tea plantation sector continues to play a significant role in the economy of north Bengal. There are 276 organised tea estates spread over the three tea-growing regions of West Bengal: Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars. Besides the formally registered large tea plantations, there are thousands of small growers. According to one estimate, the...

-IndiaWaterPortal.org Calculating water availability and crop budgeting can prevent over-extraction of groundwater and mounting farm debt. At 42 years, Bhagwat Ghagare seems young. But he is old enough to have seen his village prosper and decline many times. Farming had traditionally been small and distress migration rampant at Kumbharwadi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Between 1998 and 2002, a non-profit organisation, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), initiated a work related to rainwater harvesting...

-TheWire.in Tea plantations are touted as the country's second largest employer, but as many of them shut down, workers are being cheated by agents who exploit and traffick them. The once-thriving tea gardens in the fertile Dooars region of West Bengal have now fallen on hard times. The tea industry is touted as the country’s second largest employer, but also an industry that undermines labour rights and deprives workers and their...

-The Hindu Vantangiyas, who derive their name from a Burmese tradition of hill cultivation, have lived in tin shacks without toilets for decades Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh): There is no proper road to Jungle Tinkonia-3. As its name suggests, one must pass a woodland of sal and teak trees to reach it. The situation gets even more precarious during monsoons and medical emergencies, as the village does not have any health centre. Its infrastructure is...

-The Hindu Findings of study carried out in the Arkavathy sub-basin. Despite water crisis, farmers in villages around the Arkavathy sub-basin have been growing water intensive crops, according to a study by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) published in the journal Irrigation and Drainage. The study, 'Adapting or Chasing Water? Crop Choice and Farmers; Responses to Water Stress in peri?urban Bangalore’, was a part of an extensive socio-hydrological...