Birth Rate is a crude measure of fertility of a population and is a crucial determinant of population growth. It gives the number of live births per thousand population in a given region and year. The Birth Rate at all India level has declined drastically over the last five decades …
A plethora of initiatives for preserving biodiversity in Sikkim such as spreading mass awareness and adopting an eco-friendly policy has led to an increase of its forest cover by over four per cent since 1993, Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has said. The green cover in the tiny northeastern state …
Despite greater fiscal autonomy and higher tax revenues shared by the Centre with states, 14 of 20 states surveyed cut spending on a key nutrition programme–Supplementary Nutrition Programme or SNP–that bridges the gap between a child’s actual and ideal dietary needs, according to an analysis of national health-spending data. The …
This paper examines how the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) helps households in South Sikkim, India, build resilience to winter drought. It is one in a series of briefings that analyse how the scheme builds the resilience of rural households in different states to different climate shocks. …
Compensatory afforestation is a dubious and controversial environmental “offset” that is adding to environmental damage instead of mitigating or compensating it. Compensatory afforestation may actually be accelerating the invasion of India’s forests by big corporations, in collusion with a permissive state, by legitimising the destruction of forests, greenwashing the land …
Pheasants and Finches - two of the flagship Himalayan species seem to be reeling under the threat of climate change, states the preliminary findings of survey by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). In the times when gloom of climate change seems to be affecting the world environment, studying its impact …
Judgement of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Tseten Lepcha Vs Union of India & Others dated 21/08/2017 regarding the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dated 27.8.2014 declaring eight protected areas as Eco-sensitive Zones in in the State …
The Parliamentary standing committee on health has strongly criticised the government for starving the health sector of much-needed funds. In its report on demand for grants for 2017-18, the committee noted that the allocation for the National Health Mission (NHM) fell far short of what was needed to execute the …
With 66,000 farmers’ livelihoods at stake, concern is growing over the Indian state’s organic farming experiment, with locals reluctant to pay higher prices. It is mid-morning, and Amrit Pradhan is repositioning the tomatoes on his market stall in Gangtok, capital of the Himalayan state of Sikkim in north-east India. “People …
Bacterial and archaeal diversity of two alkaline Indian hot springs, Jakrem (Meghalaya) and Yumthang (Sikkim), were studied. Thirteen major bacterial phyla were identified of which Firmicutes, Chloroflexi and Thermi were dominant in Jakrem and Proteobacteria in Yumthang. The dominant genera were Clostridium, Chloroflexus and Meiothermus at Jakrem (water temperature 46 …
A 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit the mountainous northeastern state of Mizoram and adjoining areas on Wednesday. There was no report of any damage due to the tremor yet, officials said. “The 4.8-magnitude quake struck Mizoram and adjoining areas of Bangladesh and northeast India at 11.59 a.m. on Wednesday,” a meteorological department …
A new species of a small mammal in the rabbit family has been discovered in the higher altitudes of the Himalayas in Sikkim, a study has claimed, saying it is an important part of the ecosystem. Identified as 'Ochotona sikimaria' -- the new pika species was discovered by the study …
Sikkim has been adjudged the cleanest State while Jharkhand comes last in the list on the condition of sanitation in rural areas of 26 states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State, Gujarat is ranked 14th. The results of the survey carried out last year by the National Sample Survey Office …
This publication seeks to document the findings of a study on the general characteristics of agrodiversity, its significance, status, rate of change, and causal factors; the ecological, social, and policy dimensions of agrodiversity and their impact on the loss of agrobiodiversity; and existing strategies for the management of agroecosystems in …
IMPHAL, The capital cities of three North Eastern States – Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura are listed among the ten cleanest cities of the country in a survey conducted by New Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation – Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The top three cleanest cities of the country …
Seeds of exotic plants illegally collected in the Himalayas are being sold in the UK, the BBC has found. National Himalayan authorities say no permission was obtained to gather and export the plant material. The activity harms the environment and deprives local people of benefits from the trade of plants, …
Circles concerned in the State want to tell Guwahatians – ‘beware of both air and sound pollution rates in the city as the trend in these two aspects isn’t going the right way’. While the air quality index in the city is lying in the range which causes minor breathing …
Declares it India’s first organic state, promises airport Lauding Sikkim for achieving the status of India’s first organic state after a decade-long “tapasya”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked all states in the country to earmark a district, or at least a block or a taluka, and implement the Sikkim …
Question raised in Lok Sabha on River Pollution in Hilly Areas, 22/12/2015. The NGRBA programme along with work of Ganga & its tributaries is with Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation from 01/08/2014 onwards. So far under the NRCP & NGRBA programmes, river pollution abatement works amounting …
A unique three-day summit on sustainable development of mountain states in India, held in this Arunachal Pradesh capital, called for special steps for disaster risk reduction and optimal utilisation of mountain agricultural resources. Given the disastrous earthquake in Nepal in April this year and the 2013 cloudburst in Uttarakhand, disaster …
The Narendra Modi government is projecting its programme for issuance of Soil Health Cards (SHC) to farmers as a “flagship programme” but so far against a target of 84 lakh cards, only 34 lakh have been issued. Some of the States such as Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Mizoram, …
