Tribal communities in Similipal are being encouraged to conserve seeds and water, use bio-inputs and inter-crop millets with other crops. Farmers are optimistic that this can bring them food security and better livelihoods.
India needs to grow a lot more food, and do it sustainably to be able to meet its future food security and also keep its climate commitments. Precision farming is still nascent in the country, but could offer a way forward.
Do reader preferences influence how the media selects what to report on? A study of media coverage of land conflicts, the Covid-19 crisis and the Farm Bills provides some answers.
Amidst the gloom of lives endlessly disrupted by river erosion, a few farmers are successfully experimenting with horticulture in the heart of the very river that is swallowing their lands.
The Brahmaputra has eroded lands along its course repeatedly, forcing villagers along its embankments to find new homes and work each time, in a perpetual struggle to stabilise their lives and livelihoods.
Poor governance of natural resources is undermining progress in curbing emissions. It is also weakening the resilience of vulnerable people who are affected by climate change.
Land pooling has helped steer development in Ahmedabad more equitably than in many other Indian cities, but with some limitations and challenges still to be overcome.
Telangana’s free registration of plain paper land sale initiative to digitally clean up its land records not only benefits its dispossessed farmers but makes land governance transparent, reports Manipadma Jena.
Mumbai’s port land should be redeveloped to benefit, among others, the dock workers and slum dwellers, says a recently released report by city based NGOs Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) and Hamara Shehar Vikas Niyojan Abhiyaan. Darryl D’Monte analyses the report.
Fishing villages in Mumbai are probably more threatened than those in other cities, due to the dizzy densification of the country’s commercial capital, writes Darryl D’Monte.
A meticulous initiative by an NGO in remote tribal districts of Odisha has brought women from the local communities together, enabling them to wrest their rights and entitlements under laws such as the FRA and MGNREGA. Abhijit Mohanty writes on the project.
As Parliament debates the amended land acquisition and mining laws, Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to the report of an audit of Odisha’s resettlement and rehabilitation policy that clearly highlights the threats to displaced communities.
The government’s push to the amended land acquisition law overlooks provisions in other acts that address closely related issues such as food security and conservation of biodiversity, writes Shalini Bhutani.
Three million forest dwellers in Odisha are estimated to have been displaced since independence by various industrial and hydro-projects, among which the Upper Indiravati Hydro Project is one. Abhijit Mohanty brings us the story of three tribal settlements uprooted by it.
It’s like a scam unnoticed: even after access to over 45000 hectares of land, with massive tax exemptions and holidays, the SEZ experience has been a sorry story. Devinder Sharma questions the government’s economic reasoning and insists on accountability.
India Together is published with support from Oorvani Foundation.
