Visitors making their way along the muddy track leading to the Gossainbarie tea estate in India's north-eastern Assam state will be greeted by huge mounds of cow dung, rotting water hyacinth, as well as and fish and meat waste. But this is no cause for alarm - the tea-estate has gone organic and is following the principles of India's ancient plant medicine Vriksh Ayurveda. "This is our fertiliser because we don't...

For years, they have been waking up early and starting late. But India's northeast, which sees sunrise almost two hours before Mumbai, has decided it's time to set the clock right. The region's demand for a separate time zone has never been more vociferous April is usually the cruelest month for India's northeastern states. Cyclonic storms lash the region with vengeance and rip apart homes and hopes. But in all...

Leads to cancer and fluorosis that damages bones, teeth, muscles  west bengal is the worst-affected State in terms of arsenic contamination “The problem is being ignored because those who must address it consume bottled water” About 1.80-lakh rural habitations are afflicted by poor water quality leading to serious health problems such as cancer and fluorosis that damages bones, teeth and muscles. Arsenic contamination has been reported in nine States, fluoride problem in 18...

Armed Maoists and People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities leaders have warned nearly 200 villages in and around Lalgarh not to provide information to census officials. After collection of data for Census 2011 began in Bengal on April 1, Maoists, with guns slung across their shoulders, and People’s Committee leaders swooped on villages in Lalgarh, Salboni, Belpahari and Jhargram and asked people not to “co-operate” with the census teams. “We have asked...

Communist and opposition parties in India are holding nationwide protests against rising food and fuel prices. The Communist-governed states of west bengal, Tripura and Kerala are likely to be worst hit by the 12-hour strike called by the parties. Air and train services have been disrupted in west bengal, and attendance in offices across the states is reported to be patchy. Food prices in India have risen by as much as...