-Livemint.com The tribal belt of south Bengal has become ground zero of a grim battle with an ever-increasing population of visiting elephants The elephants are here,” Jiten Singh declares without any show of emotion as we arrive at Tapoban (Madhyapara) village. About 65km from Kharagpur town, Tapoban is a tribal hamlet deep within the vast forested terrain known as Jangalmahal, in West Bengal. It is nearing dusk. Ordinarily, the village would be...

-IANS Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday requested the Centre to release Rs 676.57 crore to pay the wages under the MGNREGA scheme till December 2017. In a letter to Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the Chief Minister sought his intervention for the release of the funds. Patnaik said the Centre was supposed to release Rs 2,290.19 crore to the state by December-end but it had released only Rs...

Although life expectancy at birth for both the sexes has improved over the last quarter of a century, a recent report points out that ‘non-communicable diseases’ (NCDs) now account for a larger proportion of total deaths vis-à-vis ‘communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional disease' (CMNNDs). The report entitled India: Health of the Nation’s States - The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative, which has been prepared after two years of intense collaborative...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram asked chief minister Naveen Patnaik to fix the minimum support price (MSP) of minor forest produce (MFP) gathered by tribals. "I would like Odisha to provide MSP to the tribals at the haats where they bring the forest produce to sell. This will protect them from any possible exploitation by middlemen and traders," said Jual in his letter to Naveen on...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik government is planning to provide edible oil, salt and finger millet - considered one of the most nutritious cereals - to the poor at subisidised rates under the food security scheme. It plans to implement a food security scheme on line of the National Food Security (NFS) programme. "Work is on to prepare a detailed plan to this effect. We will bring it in the coming annual...