-The Hindu Dire need for awareness and education regarding the superstition, says study conducted in Odisha Health concerns continue to be a major underlying reason behind witchcraft related violence in Odisha while there is a dire need for awareness and education among the people regarding superstition, says a study that analysed 102 incidents of violence. The study ‘Witch-Hunting in Odisha’ conducted by State Commission for Women, Odisha and Action Aid Association, a non-government...

-Down to Earth Most of the victims were targeted for “causing health issues or crop failure” Witch-hunts are still highly prevalent in 12 of Odisha’s 30 districts — especially Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Malkangiri, Gajapati and Ganjam — a new report has claimed. Most victims of such superstitious practices were targeted for “causing health issues or crop failure”. Around 27 per cent cases were triggered by health issues in children, 43.5 per cent by...

-Civil Society News, Gurugram THROUGHOUT the first and second waves of the coronavirus pandemic, the extent of the tragedy in India was mostly unknown. How many people had really died? Were they men or women? Information was anecdotal and speculative. This April, there were queues at crematoriums and burial grounds, but even as bodies piled up there were no reliable figures to go by. We now have some figures based on data-Hunting...

Forest fires are not just confined to countries like the United States of America (California, 2020), Brazil (Amazon forest, 2019-2020) or Australia (2019-20); they happen every year across many states in India too. Media reports suggest that forest fires have taken place in the recent months in Odisha's Simlipal National Park, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, among other states. Forest fires have also been reported this year in Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou...

-The Hindu The gender gap in the agriculture sector will only widen more with the current farm laws Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan once said, “Some historians believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out Hunting in search of food, women started gathering seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point...