-The Indian Express Odisha: A December night two desperate men, held captive by a labour contractor, were asked this, and had to make a choice. DEBABRATA MOHANTY reports on the latest victims of Orissa's vicious migration cycle It had been a fortnight that Dialu Niyal and Nilambar Dhangdamajhi had been held captive and subjected to physical and verbal abuse. Nothing though had prepared them for what happened on December 15 night deep...

-Newsclick.in How malnutrition and death have gripped the tribals of Attappadi in Kerala after land alienation in 1996. Neha Dixit reports. Last month, E. K. Bhushan, Kerala Chief Secretary informed the tribal people of Attappadi Hills that they are now entitled to restore 530 hectares of land in the area. This is out of the roughly 4370 hectares of land that was alienated from the tribals after the Tribal Land Amendment Act...

-The Hindu Appachi eco-logic cotton project is a unique organic cotton contract farm model in the Western Ghats region of Kabini Reservoir. The project covers nearly 1,200 farmers spread over 1,875 acres. Over 17 per cent of the area comes under reserve forests of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and exposing the cultivation fields to wild animal attacks is forcing farmers to start cotton cultivation on a mono cropping basis instead of...

-Newsclick.in Caste discrimination percolates down to the food plates for Musahar community in Madhepura district of Bihar reports Neha Dixit "The mahant of the Shankar Math told me to stay away from ultra-Left people the day I questioned the Collector about the hunger deaths in my village," recounts Prabhansh Manjhi. Prabhansh is from the Musahaar community in Madhepura district of Bihar. Estimated to be 2.3 million in the country, they are Mahadalits, one...

-The Hindu To get youth interested in agriculture research, the Agriculture Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) must undertake a special drive, noted farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan said on Friday. He said there should be a special analysis of the gaps in regional-level research, particularly in northeastern and tribal areas "as was done in the past." Special recruitment drives should be undertaken by inducting young scientist graduates from such regions and "grooming them intensively." He suggested...