Spam in fishing net

Kalawati Eknath Mangela and Parvati Bai Somna do not consider themselves fisherwomen any more. Every time they cast nets in the Arabian Sea, off the Tadgam beach in Valsad district of Gujarat, all they catch is garbage. "We have turned into kachrawalis (ragpickers). Ten years ago our daily fish catch would fetch Rs 250; now even Rs 20 a day is tough," said Parvati, 50, standing waist-deep in sea water, tightly holding the net.

Pests ruin paddy on 89,000 ha

DROUGHT conditions triggered a pest attack in 12 paddy growing districts of Orissa. The swarming caterpillars (Spodoptera mauritia) ruined crops on 89,000 hectares (ha) of the four million ha under paddy cultivation in the state. Sambalpur district was the worst affected; paddy crops on nearly 33,000 ha were destroyed by the pest, called leda poka in Orissa. In Malkangiri district, farms were also attacked by stem borer pests and bacterial leaf blight disease.

Aila prompts exodus

Sea levels rising between 3mm and 5mm a year; tidal surges will intensify say scientists a steady stream of people can be seen making their way to the main jetty in Chotomollakhali island in the

Caspian tigers may not be extinct

They travelled from China to Turkey and then to Siberia, where they might have resettled

Elephants without borders

Maharashtra, Karnataka slug it out over six animals

Elephant traffic

Orissa plans to manage them WITH wildlife habitat getting fragmented, elephants are more frequently straying into urban areas and causing mayhem. On January 1, a herd of elephants entered the Berhampur University campus and went on a rampage near campus staff quarters. The son of a staff member was injured. A few days before that a tusker had strayed into Jagannath Vihar, a residential colony in Bhubaneswar, and overturned a Tata Sumo vehicle. Its occupants got away lightly with minor bruises.

Denial of the rural

85 per cent urban population will be a disaster A tendency has been gaining ground in some influential circles lately that India's development is closely and necessarily linked to a path of very rapid urbanization. Finance Minister P Chidambaram forcefully articulated this view recently (in an interview to Tehelka, May 31, 2008). He said, "My vision of a poverty free India will be an India where a vast majority, something like 85 per cent, will eventually live in cities."

Myopic relief

Superheroes

A window washer dressed as spiderman scales a building. A pizza delivery man wearing superman garb rides a bike with pies in the basket. A nanny clad as catwoman attends to children. Behind the humour of these photographs by Mexican artist lie real life struggles. The photographs on show at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago depict real immigrant workers in their everyday jobs. But the images also show them as superheroes who work gruelling hours to make a better life for their families.

Wild animals, birds need wider corridors

a popular solution offered to make wildlife migration easy is to develop strips that connects two forest fragments. These are called corridors. While their importance is beyond dispute, their size isn't. A recent research looked into 32 corridors in Southern Amazonia and said they are not "wide enough" for mammals and birds. The corridors in the Mato Grosso area, a popular eco-tourist destination in Brazil, range between 10 m and 50 m.