-Hindustan Times “It was a small swarm, and spread across 1km-by-1km,” Suwa Lal Jat, joint director of plant protection in Rajasthan’s agriculture department said on Monday. Jaipur: A new swarm of locusts entered Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer on Sunday, officials said Monday. This is the fifth swarm to enter the state in four days from its western border with Pakistan. Since the first locust swarm invaded the state’s Sriganganagar district from Pakistan’s Baluchistan on April...

-Down to Earth Chhattisgarh government reinstates the role of the forest department to coordinate claims that are to be filed by communities, according to the basic structure and procedures laid out in law     “There is no doubt that this order is against the law and betrays the FRA 2006 in its letter and spirit. The state government of Chhattisgarh is bound to take this illegal order back. The rollback of this...

-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...

In the midst of COVID-19 lockdown, desert locust swarms have been seen in parts of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in the second half of May 2020. The recent attacks by desert locust swarms have caused massive crop damage, depletion in the stock of cattle fodder and destruction of green vegetation in these states. As on 25th May, 2020, over half of Rajasthan’s 33 districts were...

-Scroll.in At this critical juncture in the nation’s history, civil society cannot remain neutral. The Supreme Court of India’s verdict in the case of Indian Social Action Forum or challenging the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2011 on March 6, was one of the most decisive affirmations of civil society’s role as a political actor in India. The judgement reaffirmed the legitimate and critical role civil society has to play to ensure that...