Good ol' dug well

Traditional shallow wells can supply arsenic-free water. All one needs to do is install it with caution

Tribals beaten up by TMC workers in Sundarbans

People fear losing their land to local goons in the climate change hot spot

Fishworkers demand separate fisheries ministry at the Centre

Says BJP’s national policy on fishing and fishers released in 2012 recommended the same

Remaining tribals in Simlipal tiger reserve to be displaced

Those shifted out last December are living under plastic sheets in searing heat. Is this how relocation is meant to be carried out?

Cycles congest roads: traffic cops

Kolkata police justify ban on non-motorised transport in the city

Small tea growers in Arunachal unable to avail tea board subsidy

Forest clearance from MoEF required to register with the Tea Board of India

Heat wave grips Kolkata; mercury touches decade's highest for April

Three people succumb to heat; norwesters give south Bengal a miss

Low rain may affect production of quality teas from West Bengal, Assam

A scorching April is leading to more pest attacks, increased costs might affect wage revision, says Indian Tea Association

Crushed and torn

Closed tea gardens of West Bengal are enclaves of death and destitution. Speculative ownership and a callous government have prolonged the crisis,…

Migrants denied basic human rights, says study on Kolkata

One-third of India’s population are migrants, but the country is yet to make a policy or plan for them, says collaborative study report by …

West Bengal labour department's tea garden survey kept under wraps

Excerpts and recommendations from the unpublished survey report of all tea gardens in the state that reveals miserable living conditions of …

Junk stops here

Meet bureaucrat Yishey D Yongda, determined to turn Sikkim into a zero-waste zone

Kolkata is one of world’s 10 cities most at risk from natural disasters

Study spanning 616 cities around the globe says most of the world’s cities facing maximum risk from floods and quakes are in East Asia

Residents of closed tea estate decide to boycott elections

Bundapani is one of the seven closed plantations in northern West Bengal where starvation deaths have been reported in recent past

Jumbo conflict

Human-elephant conflict is rising across India. Every year nearly 400 people are killed by elephants and about 100 elephants lose their lives. …

On the trail of rampaging elephants

Down To Earth reporters visit human-elephant conflict zones and discover that affected people are increasingly venting their ire on forest staff …

Police harass journalist for exposing sexual abuse of Jarawa women

Editor of Andaman Chronicle, Denis Giles, served notices in unrelated cases

Tourists, not trash

How a popular tourist destination in Sikkim became the first village in India to ban bottled water and manage the trash left behind by tourists, …

Tata Tea under scanner for poor living condition and coercion of workers

World Bank authorises enquiry after investing US $8 million in the global beverages company

Cycle ban in Kolkata: activists petition high court

Police and transport department ignored months of protests by users of non-motorised transport

Jarawa man speaks out against sexual abuse of young women

Audio clip reveals that poachers and settlers are introducing the tribe to alcohol and marijuana

Mission possible

The Centre gives India just about eight years to free its villages of open defecation. This seems unlikely. But the states of Sikkim, Haryana and …

Underpass for elephants? Supreme Court snubs solicitor general

Apex court refuses to modify its order directing Indian Railways to reduce speed and stop goods train movement on killer track in northern West Bengal

Click the sick

Visual documentation of illnesses is integral to healthcare in the West but a rarity in India. Sayantan Bera charts the hows and whys of medical …

Tense over energy

South Asia is looking at an energy abyss. Millions of its people have no access to electricity or any other energy. This has put the brakes on …