Silent killers

Letters - April 15, 2012

Authority to fight hunger

Age-old Barbarism

Former environment minister Maneka Gandhi’s exhortations against cruelty to animals were often extreme—depriving itinerant animal trainers of their pets or campaigning against the killing of stray dogs even though this could expose children to rabies. Now, Richard D Ryder, former programme organiser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, says environmentalism is rooted in the desire to preserve natural resources for human beings and arises from “speciesism”, as does cruelty to animals and denying them the right to live.

Nomads fenced in

Letters - March 15, 2012

Puranas as sci-fi

Animal rights primer

Animal rights is a much obfuscated term. Does it mean animals do have rights and are these like human rights? Should all animals have the same rights? These questions fox not just the uninitiated, but also the battle-scarred activists. There is help at hand.

Rise of livestock

Policy makers in India are finally acknowledging a structural shift in the agriculture sector they have been noticing for a decade. Economic contribution of livestock is today more than that of food grain crops. Traditionally, of the three components of the sector—crops, livestock and fisheries—crops drove the growth, and food grains are a major part of it. As a result, policy and programmes focused on crops.

The goat gamble

Giyasilal Saini is a marginal farmer who has market savvy. It comes from experience. Living in a semi-arid area like Alwar in Rajasthan, he always knew he could not depend on farming alone. So he would keep some goats, like others in village Jaitpura. Then three years ago the pond that irrigated his tiny field dried up. “Rains have not been enough. I spent a fortune on irrigating my field but could not grow enough for my family,” said the 36-year-old. He devoted his energy to goat rearing.

High cost of fodder led milk price hike

Birmashri Rathore knows exactly how much water to add to milk so that it can still be accepted as milk.

Red roving fowl

long before the birth of Christ, a bird, never seen before in the valley of the Blue Nile, reached the court of the pharaohs. Neither the architectural grandeur of the court nor the 'gold-draped' Pharaohs could silhouette its beauty. A bright red comb rested regally on its head and shiny green and red feathers clothed its body finally ending in an eclipse plume. The Egyptians had never seen a bird which laid so many eggs. When it crowed, they listened with rapt attention.