-Down to Earth Most insects are not harmful but beneficial to humans; without them, nature will lose its balance Any small creature with six jointed legs and a body divided into three parts namely head, thorax and abdomen is known as an ‘insect’. They have wings, two antennae and an exoskeleton. Ants, bees and flies are insects. ‘Entomology’ is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. There may be as many as...

-GoI Monitor Herders faced discrimination and hardships in managing seasonal migrations Jaga Vashraam Rabari of Vrajvani village in Kutch migrates every summer with his herd of animals for eight months. Villagers in Pattan, around 300 km from home, usually invite and welcome his group but this time, they were not allowed to enter the villages due to rumours around COVID 19. “The presence of police personnel also scared us and our mobility was seriously...

-Scroll.in The trend is also linked to recent locust outbreaks, as large quantities of vegetation provide food for locust swarms. Ravindranath lives in the heart of the Thar desert in India. He and his family are agropastoralists – people who grow crops and rear livestock – in the village of Kalu in Bikaner district, Rajasthan. But the dry grasslands that people like Ravindranath have depended on for centuries for pasture are slowly being...

-Newsclick.in Several nomadic people usually set out in March on traditional routes, where animals feed on vegetation. Once lockdown is lifted and kharif sowing starts, the animals will be left with nothing to chew on. Pastoral nomads stranded in the lockdown in Rajasthan’s desert region since March 25, are worried about feeding their animals, as once the lockdown lifts, the summer heat would have dried out vegetation on their traditional routes. The seasonal...

-Livemint.com * India’s cattle are on an enforced diet, milk’s value is on the slide and chicken farmers are in deep despair * The livestock sector contributes 30% to India’s agricultural GDP and is valued at over ₹9 trillion. Yet, during the lockdown, policy and remedial interventions have largely focused on crops NEW DELHI: Shravan Kumar Yadav often wakes up in the middle of the night these days. The incessant mooing and grunting...