Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
RECENTLY, the tribals at Chidia in the West Singhbhum district in Bihar took up cudgels in protest against the proposed modernisation of Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) unit. The pent up anger in tribals at being exploited for centuries is now slowly breaking out. The tribal leaders have alleged …
BEFORErefrigerators became the norm of the day, earthen pots were used to store cool drinking water. The water in the pot reaches the outer surface through the pores in the earthen pots which on evaporation, humidifies, cooling the air around it. This in turn cools the water in the pot. …
To allow villagers access to many4on technologies available to them 140 before they decide to implementAIM them, the Society for Rural %IV Industrialisation (SRI) in Ranchi,A@ Bihar, has set up a rural technology park in the Chaingati village *in Ranchi district. The park is the firstem of its kind in …
TUCKED away in the flat valley of Dalma hills in East Singhbhum Patna district, Bihar, lies the village of B I H A R Pagda. Although only 20 km. away from the steel city of shedpur, it had remained jamPat impoverished and underdeveloped until five years ago. Pagda today, however, …
Sriprakash, whose previous film, Kiski Raksha (Whose Safety), on Netarhat - which presented the conflict between the army and local tribes - has finished his second film. Addo Milad Wgulan (Another Revolt) Is a documentary on the tribal movement of Bihar. This time around It describes the 30-year-old struggle against …
LISSOME Seeta Mahato, 21, married last year, is the healing and humane touch in down and out Hiramiya village, tucked away in the backward Samastipur district of Bihar. Lissome is a lady health worker (lhw). And her team has worked wonders. "In just 6 months, we reduced the spate of …
The concept of Chakriya Vikas Pranali (CVP) can roughly be translated into English as "Cyclical System of Development". As with all translations, it is a poor copy of the original meaning. The concept originated from the famous Sukhomajri experiment. (Sukhomajri is a village in the Ambala district where the first …
PALAMAU, a district in south Bihar, is the archetype of an unfair and increasingly common socioeconomic paradox: rich land, dirt poor people. Despite its vast natural resources, forest cover, rainfall and low population density, Palamau has a dismally low development index, further lowered each passing year under the double trouble …
Another viral maniac has claimed 200 lives -- including those of 75 children below the age of 10 -- in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. The state's health department officials of suspect that the culprit is viral encephalitis, which leads to inflammation of the brain tissues and subsequent brain damage. …
FOR the poor villagers inhabiting the underdeveloped villages of central Bihar, an access to cheap and timely health care is a distant dream. However, for the last 2 years, in many villages of Arrah, Gaya, Patna and Nalanda, 60 young and committed health workers are working hard to transform this …
Last year, when a herd of elephants from the Purulia forests of Bihar made its annual trek to greener areas in the Bankura and Medinipur districts of West Bengal, it strayed close to Calcutta, causing much fear (Down To Earth, Vol No February 15, 1994). This year, the tuskers have …
The forest protection initiatives of villagers in Bihar and Orissa, while arising out of crises, are marked by pragmatism. The people have realised that protection is possible only once their often-conflicting needs have been met first, which is why villagers' committees closely regulate the use of forest resources. Unfortunately, for …
IN THE summer of 1970, Nunaram Mardi of Bhitardhari village in Bihar"s East Singhbhum district espied a lone female monkey on a treeless rockface, desperately trying to shield her baby from the harsh sun with her body. "She was searching for shade, but could not find any," Mardi recounts. "On …
In the the first survey of its kind in the country, the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency (nrsa) has prepared detailed maps of the underground fires that have raged in the Jharia coalfields for most of this century. A scanned survey of 6,000 ha at the heart of the area, …
The cash-strapped Bihar government has plugged funds meant for the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) for flood control measures. The state's rural development department has asked the district magistrates of 6 flood-prone districts to utilise funds meant for employment schemes to repair embankments. However, even though the Bihar government had planned …
KISKI Suraksha is a film made by Shree Prakash, who spent several months watching and documenting a movement in progress. Netarhat is a small but pretty hill station in the Palamau district of Bihar. In and around Netarhat, there are several tribes that have long been declared close to extinction …
INDIAN filmmakers have tackled the subject of Adivasis before, but the film under review this fortnight is the most ambitious in recent years. Tapan K Bose's Jharkhand was meant to be part of a trilogy, but the other two didn't get made because the filmmaker ran out of resources. Bose …
Those who took upon themselves the task of opposing the Dunkel proposals for the Uruguay round of talks have done a remarkable job. A motley band of people with little in common -- except their professed dislike for the Dunkel proposals -- have managed to carry the anti-Dunkel stand even …
KABAR Tal, a 7,500-ha lake in Begusarai district of north Bihar, is ecologically one of the most important wetlands in the state. The lake hosts 106 species of resident birds and is a nesting ground for 59 species of migratory birds. In addition, the wetland supports a large number of …
