-The Hindu Since June, at least 60 senior citizens have been abandoned on the streets Chennai: Nagarunissa, who is in her 70s, has been living on the pavement along Sydenhams Road in Periamet for several years. She depends on local residents for food, and with folded hands, thanks passers-by who give her money. "My son lives in Bangalore, but I have been here for the past 20 years. I sit here all day...

-The Hindu Manoharpur (Jharkhand): Deep inside the Saranda sal forest, Thalkobad lies at the core of what was a CPI (Maoist) "liberated zone" in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district along the Odisha border. Thalkobad, along with 24 other villages, was reclaimed by the Indian state after a massive military operation - Operation Anaconda-I in August 2011 to destroy the CPI (Maoist) Eastern Regional Bureau and several training camps inside Saranda. The village...

-The Hindu     The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the...

-The Hindu   Efforts by the Pollution Control Board to improve groundwater quality in Ghaziabad have proved futile so far The contamination of groundwater in and around Ghaziabad's industrial areas has become a cause of concern, apart from reports of its fast deteriorating air quality. All remediation efforts to improve the groundwater quality have so far been futile, say residents of the area. Efforts by an expert committee set up by the Uttar Pradesh...

-The Hindu Pollution standards exist only for ambient air quality and not for individual power plants, says report Emissions from coal-fired power plants is taking a heavy toll on human life across large parts of India. In 2011-2012, a first-of-its-kind study in the country estimates it resulted in a whopping 80,000 to 1,15,000 premature deaths and more than 20 million asthma cases from exposure to a total PM10 (particulate matter) pollution. Titled ‘Coal...