On June 5th this year, the Stranded Workers Action Network, comprising volunteers from various civil society groups, academics and students enrolled in university education, released its third report entitled ‘To Leave or Not to Leave? Lockdown, Migrant Workers, and Their Journeys Home’. Among other things, the latest report states that nearly four-fifth of migrant workers (out of 5,911) who called SWAN volunteers for help (altogether 821 distress calls were made)...

-Down to Earth Union govt was aware of high mortality even as PM Modi played up rise in count Ninety-two ASIatic lions have died in Gujarat’s ASIatic Lion Landscape (ALL) since January 2020, according to a Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) committee report. ALL includes Gir National Park and Sanctuary and covers eight districts of Gujarat, including Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot, Gir-Somnath, Botad and Jamnagar, according to the...

-The Hindu Efficacy of vaccine for CDV not known, data unavailable An outdated methodology and the true mortality from a virus affecting India’s lions dent the credibility of the Gujarat government’s claims on its lion population. In a press statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted results of the 2020 ASIatic Lion Census that put the number of lions at 674, a 28% rise from...

-TheWire.in In an interview for The Wire, the former ICRISAT scientist says the damage could have been contained if the government had acted promptly to warnings. The desert locust is a deadly agricultural pest that has been on a feeding spree across North Africa, West ASIa and South ASIa. Lore and mentions of locust swarms exist in the Mahabharata, the Bible and the Quran. But it has been largely absent from the...

-TheThirdPole.net The rapid warming of the Indian Ocean due to climate change is leading to more cyclones pummelling South ASIa, as storms gather more quickly and become more intense Nisarga, the first cyclone to have threatened Mumbai in more than 70 years, has left India’s financial capital largely unharmed after it made landfall in the nearby beach town of Alibaug on June 3. Gujarat and Maharashtra along India’s western coast have traditionally...