Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
Humanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with the majority of people now living in cities. Cities have long been known to be society's predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also its main source of crime, pollution, and disease. The inexorable trend toward …
More than 2,000 members of a religious sect recently marched up to the district of San Jeronimo, near the city of Cuzco in the southeastern Peru, to protest an official mining exploration request, which, according to the protestors, threatens religious sites in Q'oyllur Riti Sanctuary. The snowy mountainside where the …
To reach Hairpur, a remote fishing village along the West Bengal coast, one has to get off the main road and walk 2.5 km over a broad mud dyke. Access to this path is blocked by a log barrier. Outsiders are not welcome. Haripur villagers have been protesting since last …
Moving towards privatisation of mining in India, the Union government granted Essar Steel Limited a prospecting licence in February 2007 to mine iron ore reserves in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. The licence was given after the National Mineral Development Corporation's 30-year lease expired on February 3, 2007, without any excavations having …
On March 14, 2006, about 3,000 police personnel forced their way into West Bengal's Nandigram block, injuring and killing many villagers. Villages in the block, in East Midnapur district, have been resisting the state government's plan to set up a special economic zone (sez) in the area. The official death …
the massacre at Nandigram came as a shock to most. In retrospect, though, it needn't have. cpi(m)'s unrelenting drive to industrialise and urbanise West Bengal has had the makings of a disaster for some time now
We were standing between a massive mine and a stunning water reservoir. Local activists were explaining to me that this iron ore mine was located in the catchment of the Salaulim water reservoir, the only water source for south Goa. Suddenly, as I started clicking with my camera, we were …
Refugees clash For the first time in 16 years, a violent confrontation took place in the third week of February between Bhutanese refugees and villagers in Pathari, 600 km east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. The clash happened when the latter tried to stop the Bhutanese refugees from taking wood from …
on february 22, 2007, clearance to the Tipaimukh dam project in Manipur was stalled for a second time because of lack of sufficient data submitted to the appraisal committee for the project's environmental impact assessment (eia). The Expert Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects under the Union ministry …
Following illegal logging of mahogany trees across Peru's rainforests, the region's indigenous people , who have no contact with the outside world, are now fleeing their tradition territory and seeking shelter in Brazil along its border with Peru. The Brazilian government tracked them during an aerial inspection of the area. …
A new English-language fm radio station intended to promote Israeli-Palestinian dialogue has begun operations. ram fm, operating from Ramallah in the West Bank, is backed by a South African group which had operated a station
Livelihoods of fisherfolk is at stake as the Mundra special economic zone (sez) on the northern shore of the Gulf of Kutch gets underway. Potentially the largest sez in the country, it covers 28 km of coastline and is spread across 13,000 hectares (ha). While the Adani Group, the promoters, …
Yala, January 25, 2007: Sri Lanka's only known crossed-tusk elephant in the wild, known locally as Dalaputtuwa dies of paralysis caused by gunshot wounds in the periphery of a highly protected national park. The tusker, a rare sight in Sri Lankan jungles, was shot by 35-year old Punchi Banda Samarathunge …
who should fund the National Rainfed Area Authority (nraa)? The issue remained unresolved even after the first meeting of the authority ended in Delhi in January this year. Set up in November 2006, the National Rainfed Area Authority is mandated to raise the productivity of rainfed areas. More than 60 …
The future of the Tawa Matsya Sangh (tms), a cooperative of fisherfolk operating in the Tawa reservoir in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad district, is firmly on hold. On December 23, 2006, their licence to fish in the reservoir expired, and since then all hell has broken loose. The reservoir was created …
Pak pollution check The Rawalpindi city district government in Pakistan recently launched a plan to shift industrial units in Rawalpindi city to its suburbs to reduce pollution in the city. The plan requires industrial units causing soil and air pollution in residential areas to be shifted outside the city. The …
Iraq's beleaguered people have an unlikely ally in the search engine Google. Its online satellite map, Google Earth, is being used to help people survive violence in Baghdad. As sectarian strife has worsened, some Iraqis have set up websites to help others avoid death squads. One tip
with the killing of three forest officials in Orissa's Kandhar forests in Dhenkanal district triggering panic over the past fortnight, forest officials in the state are queuing up for voluntary retirement from their services. The forest officials were reportedly killed by Naxals in the last week of January. The Naxals …
what Sri Lanka can do, most unfortunately, India cannot. The island nation is plagued by widespread conflict between elephants and humans caused, as is usual in these parts, by the expansion of human settlements and a consequent shrinking of the animal's habitat. What makes matters worse is that efforts to …
The official blueprint Goa currently follows is the Regional Plan 2001. It was notified in 1986, and today there is unanimity that this plan has become redundant. For two compelling reasons
