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 …
crisis tided over: The dispute over seasonal fishing in the reserved forestland of Jambudwip island in West Bengal (see: Out of bounds, February 28, 2003) may be resolved in the near future. An amicable agreement between the state government's fisheries and forest departments bears testimony to this. The deal was …
Why are we, as a nation, so non-serious about following through on actions? Is it the curse of a foreign language in which we act, but not think, that we pick up words and so believe the deed, too, is done? Take any major challenge that has confronted decision-making in …
Multinational oil giants Chevron Texaco Oil Company, Shell and Total Fina Elf have shut down operations in Nigeria's trouble-torn southern Delta region. The companies estimate that the disruptions have reduced Nigeria's daily oil output by about 30 per cent. The country is the world's sixth largest oil exporter. Dozens of …
function openana1(){ var popurl="html/20030331_p28.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=610,height=460") } War zones Where battles rage in the evening By the time they killed it on June 25, 2002 the female elephant had killed 13 people over three days across the Indo-Nepal border. This much is known. The rest is a mix of half-truths, rumours, …
At a time when the threat of war looms large over Iraq, here's more ammunition for peaceniks to confront warmongers with. The United Nations Environment Programme (unep) recently released the findings of assessments conducted in the violence-wracked Occupied Palestinian Territories and Afghanistan. The reports have brought into sharp focus the …
The recent imbroglio on interconnectivity between cellular and WILL (wireless in local loop)/CDMA (code division multiple access) subscribers left many of us speechless. Literally. The response came through a proxy war involving Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). This is worrying; for interconnectivity is the …
a unique people's movement is gathering momentum in Pakistan. Local residents and politicians of a small town in central Punjab in Pakistan are resisting tooth and nail an attempt to siphon off their water resources to a bigger urban centre. The plan to install tubewells in the villages around Chiniot, …
Writ Petition number 202 of 1995; Godavarman v the Union of India and others. This is the ‘forest case’ being heard in Supreme Court for the past seven years. With more than 800 interlocutory applications (ias) filed, the case will dictate the fate of India’s forests and an estimated 10 …
When Karnataka chief minister (cm) S M Krishna was asked to disclose his "strategy' for resolving the raging Cauvery river dispute with Tamil Nadu (tn), he wrung his hands and said: "The only panacea is rainfall.' While Krishna lobbed the ball in "Nature's court', his tn counterpart
the underground fire has resurfaced as a raging row in Jharia, a small industrial town near Dhanbad in Jharkhand. What has stoked the controversy afresh is state chief minister (cm) Babulal Marandi's announcement that nearly 0.3 million people would be evacuated from the area. Local leaders, irrespective of their political …
all herders and livestock, who had intruded into the 392-square-kilometre (sq km) Ranthambhore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district, Rajasthan, have been driven out ending one month of drama. The tension between 100-odd villages around the park and the forest department, however, can spark more trouble in the future. There …
In India, there is an inextricable link between water and politics. This was very much in evidence recently when the opposition walked out in the Karnataka assembly over the proposed privatisation of Bangalore’s water supply system. Water tariff had earlier been hiked steeply in the city to pave the way …
The Walvis Bay lagoon is at the centre of a stormy debate between the town's tourism development council and conservationists. The former wants to develop a restaurant-coffee shop-tourism centre near the water body to "enhance the city's attractiveness as a tourist destination'. But the Coastal Environmental Trust of Namibia (cetn), …
The controversy about the high arsenic content in Lucknow's water has taken a new turn. The contention of M C Saxena, director, Environmental Research Laboratory, that the water contains 10,000 parts per billion (PPB) of arsenic has been refuted by an expert. Dipankar Chakraborti, an authority on arsenic and director …
For the past 18 months, Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister Jamuna Devi has kept up the fusillade against Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar. Now Patkar has returned fire by filing a Rs 10-lakh defamation suit against Devi in the Indore district court. Earlier, Devi had alleged that Patkar …
In a strange twist to the raging lumber dispute between the us and Canada, both nations have interpreted a recent World Trade Organisation (wto) ruling on the issue as a vindication of their respective stands. While the us contends that it has scored a "technical point', Canada says the body …
The simmering water dispute between Mexico and the us seems to have been finally settled. The border countries reached an agreement under which Mexico will release about 111 million cubic metres of water into Rio Grande river for use by Texas farmers. This is six per cent of the water …
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister gifted two baby elephants to a group of Japanese children. Moved by reports about the impact of the recent conflict in the Balkans on a zoo in the Croatian city of Osijek, these children began pooling their pocket money for an elephant. They wrote to …
