-The Times of India KOLKATA: The fragile Sundarbans region stared at an ecological nightmare after a vessel carrying 350 tonnes of oil crashed, spilling the toxic liquid over an 80-sq-km area along the Sela river in Bangladesh and threatening a sanctuary of rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins. The site, near Mongla port, is about 100km from the Kolkata port and Indian officials are on alert over the possibility of the oil slick...

-Down to Earth The proposed Sewerage Master Plan 2031 that promises to end Delhi's drainage troubles underestimates the wastewater volume of the city Delhi is notorious for its overflowing drains and poor sanitation. The situation is so bad that just half of the city's population has sewerage connection. Media reports show that cases of water-borne diseases like cholera are reported more from areas lacking sewerage systems such as Rohini and Shahdara. This...

-PTI Srinagar: When the floods wreaked havoc in Kashmir and plunged most parts of the Valley into darkness, few doctors at a lone maternity care hospital in Srinagar, lent a ray of light to people's lives by performing birth surgeries under candlelight. Doctors at the Lal Ded Hospital, whose ground floor was submerged by flood waters from Jhelum, performed six deliveries under the candlelight as the electricity supply to the hospital was...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has tall plans of making India open defecation-free by 2019 and has asked states to ensure toilets for all, but sanitation experts are sceptical whether so much can be done in five years. Pankaj Jain, the drinking water and sanitation secretary, has written to chief secretaries of all states that the Modi regime is committed to ringing in a "Swachh Bharat" by 2019, which marks...

-The Hindu Business Line   Chemical-intensive agriculture has ravaged our soil quality. History tells us that the consequences could be catastrophic During the 86th birthday celebrations of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Indian farmers "deserve a standing ovation". However, he reminded the gathered scientists that it was not enough to sit in five-star seminar rooms and analyse why something could not be done; rather, they should...