-Newsclick.in Meet Siya Ram, president of Dalit Ekta Camp, a JJ cluster in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj colony, an upwardly-mobile residential neighbourhood. The Modi government’s decision to impose a national lockdown, on since 24 March, to check the spread of the Novel Coronavirus has caused tremendous hardship to the poor. Its most lamentable symbol has been the sight of lakhs of migrants fleeing cities to villages, walking or cycling down the highway or...

-NDTV "Marenge toh gaon mein hi marenge" said a determined Ramesh as he walked down a highway in Gurgaon in late March with his wife and two small children. The family had just set off for their village, 450 km away in Madhya Pradesh because they did not think they would survive a 21-day lockdown with no source of income. 45 days, two extensions, a disposed-of petition on wage payment for...

-The Indian Express Kanchi Kohli of the Centre for Policy Research said, "Environmental laws need to be strengthened and not relaxed as is the draft EIA. For instance, the gas leak that in Visakhapatnam today; while this is an accident, there will now have to be an investigation to see whether this was a lapse." After receiving numerous representations for extending the notice period of the draft Environment Impact Assessment notification 2020,...

-The Week Flower growers across the country might be forced to discontinue cultivation Times have never been so rotten, say flower growers as the sight of wilting flowers across fields during the nationwide lockdown are driving them to despair. If the government does not step in to help them, these floriculturists might be forced to discontinue flower cultivation. Ram Chander, a 40-year-old flower grower in the village of Ramnagar (Mal block, Lucknow) has...

-TheWire.in Many cities are experiencing a dip in pollution levels due to lockdowns. But this may not necessarily translate into support for mitigation policies. In the article published in The Wire Science on April 4, Siddarth Goel presented a good analysis of the initial impact, including the response of business and government, of the ongoing global pandemic on the environment, particularly climate change. The article ends with a note suggesting that heightened...