-The Hindu With no will to enforce the 1982 Act, girls from marginalised communities in Karnataka are still trafficked Panaji: More than thirty-six years after the Karnataka Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act of 1982 was passed, the State government is yet to issue the rules for administering the law. MEAnwhile the practice of dedicating young girls to temples as an offering to appease the gods persists not just in Karnataka, but has...

-Hindustan Times The agrarian crisis is one of the factors that may have resulted in the BJP’s loss in three Hindi heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in December, according to analysts, and the party clearly doesn’t want it to affect its prospects in the 2019 parliamentary elections. New Delhi: This financial year, 2018-19 could end up being the worst year for farm incomes in almost two decades, government data...

-The Indian Express As there are 21.6 crore small and marginal farmers — most of whom are not in a position to repay the loan or put collateral — such a scheme is the only way to support their fund requirements, apart from ensuring market prices for their produce. Mumbai: The NDA government is considering a package of proposals for the distressed agriculture sector that includes interest-free loans, loans without collateral...

-Down to Earth Sunita Narain on cow-vigilantism, cattle trade and the collapse of the livestock economy of India I would not advocate vegetarianism. When I reasoned this out in this column a few years ago, I received the usual insults. Environmentalists are expected to be vegetarian, or better vegan! But what many didn’t register was my emphasis: “I am saying this as an Indian environmentalist; not global or western environmentalist.” My argument has...

-The Hindu In addition, 11 tigers and 13 lions died in railway and road accidents in the past three years Kolkata: In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) released ‘Eco-friendly MEAsures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure’, an advisory document for mitigating human-animal conflicts. Despite this advisory, and many others issued by conservationists and organisations, deaths of wild animals in road and railway accidents have continued unabated. The MoEFCC...