Reply affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the matter of Debadityo Sinha & Others Vs Union of India & Others. An application filed before the NGT said that illegal construction activities and clearing the vegetation and forest using massive earthwork and levelling the land …
Bhubaneswar Bindhani has not heard of a UNDP Human Development Report Paper, ‘Migration and Human Development’. It is quite likely the authors of the 2009 report did not take note of the fortunes of this resident of Nuagaon village in Odisha’s Nuapada district when they wrote, “migration fosters development of …
The Kalahandi Bolangir Koraput (KBK) region of western Odisha is home to people who are among the poorest in India. The local environment can be difficult to live in as rainfall is irregular leading to intermittent crop failures, and there is often a shortage of safe drinking water. The health …
When patdehri (chief priest) Halu Thanapati, 68, gets possessed, he hastily dives into the badan khaal—the yoni of Goddess Duarseni, the supreme deity of his tribe—as though to suck the rare wisdom that ensures ‘existence’ on earth. The yoni is actually the mouth of a natural tunnel, which is independent …
The present study analyses viable methods of rainwater harvesting in drought-prone Bolangir and examines different bio-physical and socio-economic factors that influence the performance and sustainability of the water harvesting structures (WHSs). The study reveals that the traditional WHSs have proved to be extremely useful not only in normal years but …
Bolangir district in Orissa, facing drought conditions since 1965, sees an annual mass migration of farmers to other States in search of work. SURESH GOHIR of Bhotapada village in the backward Bolangir district of Orissa consumed pesticide two years ago after his paddy crop failed. He survived the suicide attempt …
Dilip Bisoi Bhubaneswar, THE GOVT MAY THINK OF LINKING SASUBAHUMALI MINES WITH THE VEDANTA PROJECT. SASUBAHUMALI IS ALSO EMBROILED IN LITIGATION With the Niyamgiri mines out of reach, the Orissa government may think of allotting an alternative bauxite mines to Vedanta Resources in order to save at leastthe1-million-tonnerefinery at Lanjigarh. …
Unimpressed by the progress made under the well-known KBK assistance plan, where over Rs 1,600 crore has been spent over the last decade, a concerned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Planning Commission to immediately carry out a fresh time-bound re-evaluation of the programme with special focus on the …
Eighty-year-old Champo Bariha, a resident of Chabripali village in the tribal district of Balangir, gets Rs 200 a month as old age pension and 25 kg subsidized rice that below poverty line (bpl) families are allocated. It was too little for his family of seven to survive on. Champo’s wife, …
The Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) here, in association with the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, and other organisations, have launched an initiative to end chronic hunger in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) regions of Orissa by 2015. The initiative is part of an integrated approach to achieve Millennium Development …
Akshaya Kumar Sahoo Jhintu Bariha and his family members were victims of chronic hunger. A migrant labourer, illiterate Jhintu never availed of the social security measures -- either job at the door step or government supplied food -- until he lost two of his three children. ON SEPTEMBER 6 and …
A careful analysis of the computed Agricultural Development Indices for different districts of Orissa reveals that the four coastal districts (Balasore, Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam) and two districts of central table land area (Sambalpur and Bolangir) are agriculturally more advanced than other districts in the three reference years over three …
The Lower Suktel Irrigation Project, which commenced in late 1990s, aims to provide irrigation and potable water to the drought prone district Bolangir. It will fully submerge 16 villages and 10 villages partially, affecting 4160 families including 1222 families belonging to the scheduled tribes. The progress is slow, partly due …
Despite a ban, Bt cotton cultivation is widespread in Orissa the recent death of 93 goats after grazing near a cotton field in Bolangir, a tribal-dominated district in Orissa, has put the authorities on alert. The field in Kuthurla village, Khaprakhol block, was reportedly under Bt cotton cultivation. The state …
It is not possible to realise the massive potential of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act if we deploy the same ossified structure of implementation that has deeply institutionalised corruption, inefficiency and non-accountability into the very fabric of Indian democracy.
Tribals in Orissa's Balangir district say they have been deceived. They allege an Agra-based company has duped them and taken away 200 acres (around 80 hectares) of their fertile land to plant jatropha, for biofuel production. "Taj Gases Ltd has cheated us and has taken most of our land. The …
the skeletonised frame of 68-year-old Manglu Bhoi doesn't shiver with the chilly spring breeze on a bright February morning, but with the thought that he has to walk for two kilometres to fetch a bucket of water. A resident of India's poorest district, Balangir, he is one of the million …
Melchhamunda is an oasis in the parched western Orissa. The village in the Bargarh district is fighting the drought with its 400-year-old pond that still contains water. The village depends on agriculture for survival and is only source of irrigation is the around 10-hectare Kata. As Deepak Bhoi, a resident …
These systems were evolved keeping in mind the unique topography of the region. Earlier, kings used to give agricultural lands to those maintaining tanks as incentives. Today, most of these structures are in a dilapidated condition, and in some cases have simply vanished. bandh: A traditional pond that is usually …
• Community structures transferred to government after Independence. Community lost their rights l Attention shifted to modern irrigation projects often not suitable to the local topography. l Rich farmers converted tanks into agriculture lands earlier shared by the community for irrigation l Deforestation led to siltation in the catchments areas …
