-South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) A new study this week has reminded us what has been known for long. Dams not only store water but also trap the sediment flowing in the River. Whatever smaller quantity of water flow from dams to downstream areas, has much lower or no silt. A lot of that silt was supposed to reach the coast, helping fight against the erosion of...

Door-to-door and village-to-village surveys carried out by researchers of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana detected a total of 9,291 suicides that were committed by farmers in six districts of Punjab during the period from 2000 to 2018. Situated in the Malwa region of Punjab, which is known for cotton farming and the prevalence of cancer among its population, Sangrur (2,506) witnessed the highest number of...

-The Telegraph Lessons to take away from the two recent calamities in NorthEast It is never easy to rationalise tragedy. The two witnessed recently in the Northeast are no exceptions. One, the Assam floods in which the state’s two major Rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Barak, and their tributaries wreaked havoc, killing nearly 200 people and, at one point, putting close to 4.5 million people in danger of starvation and disease. Two,...

-RuralIndiaOnline.com In this region of the Himalayas, shepherds brave the wet and cold weather to graze their sheep and goats. They also protect them from wild animals on the Gangotri range where they live for up to nine months a year “In a year we lose many animals to leopards. They come at night and snatch them away,” says shepherd Gaur Singh Thakur. Even the native Bhutia dog, Sheroo, cannot keep them...

-DNA India Between 2013 and 2017, over 4 lakh incidents of illegal mining were reported. The mineral wealth of the country is openly looted by mining mafia. What would you do if some people stole some items from your house? You would immediately go to the police against this and ask the police to find your stolen goods? Any person would do the same. But now imagine if some people steal the mineral...