In a small pastoral vand (hamlet) in Kutch, Gujarat, 10 year old Ramu wakes up at five in the morning. His mother serves him a hasty breakfast of bajra rotis after which he is packed off to the pasturelands surrounding their small hamlet to graze the family's buffaloes. Since his village does not have a working school, grazing the livestock is gainful employment from the point of view of Ramu's...

The rail track passing through forest areas in different parts of the country, including Walayar on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, have become a death trap for the wildlife, particularly elephants. Though a hue and cry is raised every time a tragedy strikes, the deaths of a large number of wild elephants in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam and West Bengal remain a burning issue. The recent incidents of train hits in these...

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) should feel relieved that the private sector has stepped in to create additional foodgrain storage capacity, bridging the extant gap. However, it is difficult to Fathom why much of the new warehousing capacity is sought to be put in place in grain-surplus states (production centres) — notably Punjab and Haryana, besides some others like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra — rather than in...

The green revolution has largely mitigated food security concerns even though flawed distribution and food inflation keep a section of the population underfed. However, nutritional security still eludes most people, including many of those who eat enough cereal. Much of this nutritional deficiency is the result of an insufficient intake or the consumption of poor-quality protein. Food scientists believe that promoting fish consumption can play a key role in alleviating protein...

With the largest number of diabetes patients in the world, India needs to promote a healthier lifestyle among its citizens if it has any chance of battling the disease, experts said Sunday. "Diabetes is either hereditary or lifestyle-related in our country. So now the need is to move away from the sedentary lifestyle," S.K. Wangnoo, senior consultant of endocrinology at the capital's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, said in an Interview. According the World...