-Newsclick.in A new ecological social contract may emerge if the Save Buxwaha Forest movement attains its objectives. They say diamonds are forever. So is the ecological damage diamond mines cause, say environmental activists protesting against the proposed diamond mine in Madhya Pradesh’s Buxwaha forest. Blood or Conflict Diamonds is a term used for organised crime networks in African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola etc, where the money from diamond...

-Press release by United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner GENEVA (16 July 2021): UN human rights experts* today called on India to halt evictions of some 100,000 people – including 20,000 children – that began this week in the midst of monsoon rains. Demolition of homes began on Wednesday, 14 July, in a village in Haryana State built on protected forest land, even though the forest was actually destroyed...

-Down to Earth Shoreline armouring can increase damages by $723 million for a single flood event Sea-level rise due to climate change has threatened millions of lives and exacerbated infrastructure costs in building embankments and seawalls. These flood-protection constructions, however, heighten the risks of flooding and cost greater financial damages, according to a new report. "Protection of individual shoreline segments (5 to 75 kilometres) can increase flooding in other areas by as much...

-Frontline.TheHindu.com THE Narendra Modi government’s penchant for indulging in ambushes as a means of unleashing policies is now all too obvious. Policies whether relating to vaccines or privatisation of key economic entities have been marked by bizarre U-turns, abrupt changes or abandonment of previously announced approaches. The idea of policies seems to be to instil shock and awe, logic and rectitude be damned. A striking case in point is the government’s...

-Scroll.in The sharp drop in GDP is the largest in the country’s history – and even that may well underestimate the economic damage experienced by the poorest households. From April to June 2020, India’s GDP dropped by a massive 24.4%. According to the latest national income estimates, in the second quarter of the 2020-’21 financial year (July-September 2020), the economy contracted by a further 7.4%, with the third and fourth quarters (October...