-The Telegraph Unesco has declared the Western Ghats a World Heritage site, capping a six-year campaign, but another Indian nomination on the “hill forts of Rajasthan” tripped because of inadequacies in documentation. The recognition for the ghats came despite a recommendation against their inclusion by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an advisory panel that assesses entries for special ecological zones. The ICUN concluded that the five states through which the...

-PTI Every four minutes, one person takes his own life in this country and one in every five suicides is that of a housewife. This and other startling figures are part of a government report 'Accidental Deaths and Sucides in India 2011' released here recently. According to the report, the number of suicides have increased in 2011 by 0.7% to touch 1,35,585 compared to 1,34,599 in the previous year. West Bengal has reported the...

-Live Mint Almost all of us have, through the unfortunate experience of a relative, an acquaintance or a friend, been exposed to the trauma of suicide; personally I have been associated with such an experience thrice. This unnatural and often violent form of death left me confounded (I never saw it coming) and hugely frustrated (at the loss that could have been prevented with timely help). For more than a decade, the...

-The Times of India As many as 14,004 farmers committed suicide in 2011 countrywide, the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau has noted. The number is lower than the previous year's figure of 15,933 but the dip might be much less considering that Chhattisgarh, which recorded 1,412 farmer suicides in 2010, claimed that there were no farmer suicides at all in the state in 2011. As always, Maharashtra fared...

-The Times of India Divorce, "illegitimate pregnancy" and professional/ career problems seem to be pushing more people to commit suicide. According to the NCRB report, in 2011, at least 16 people committed suicide every hour and the total figure was 1.35 lakh. While family problems accounted for almost one-fourth of suicides, illness was another major reason. Interestingly, suicides due to divorce and "illegitimate pregnancy" saw a rise of 54% and 20%...