Comfort backpack

An improved plucking basket promises to alleviate muscular pain and fatigue, two major health problems faced by tea garden workers

South Asia

Just like a forest

Analog forestry mimics a forest to create an economically productive and ecologically diverse landscape

Vignettes from Sri Lanka's cloud country

In Sri Lanka, organic farmers draw inspiration from endemic practices such as home gardens or analog forestry, and have also adapted ‘…

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

Lost in plantation

Millions of growers and workers are in distress in Kerala, the plantation capital of India, as domestic and international prices of cash crops …

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Excerpts and recommendations from the unpublished survey report of all tea gardens in the state that reveals miserable living conditions of …

Polluting units shut in Kaziranga

Green tribunal fines state, Centre for allowing stone crushers, brick kilns near Assam park

Crisis brewing

Collapse of the former Soviet market and an indifferent attitude to quality clips Nilgiris tea industry

West Bengal’s tea-tribe voters have a jumbo problem

Workers in Majherdabri tea estate say no candidate is addressing their fear of elephant attacks

Assam moves to curb pesticides in vegetables, tea

Pesticide limits to be set for vegetables; cultivators could be fined or banned from undertaking cultivation if their products exceed limit

Red mite threatens tea plantations in Tamil Nadu

Why are tea plantation workers dying of hunger?

Lack of oversight by state governments, along with low wages and tough working conditions, is causing starvation deaths, says a fact finding team

Different colours of green

How media has shaped people's understanding of environment

Simmering discontent over tea

The newfound success of brand Darjeeling is fuelling suspicion between planters and workers. Sayantan Bera reports

Letters

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,…

Kaziranga’s no-development zone has 90 factories

Green tribunal orders closure of all industries that began operations after the zone was notified in 1996; others to use clean fuel

Development projects threaten Dehing Patkai sanctuary

National Board of Wildlife panel to visit the area to review proposals

Pesticide-rich food

Agriculture department confirms high pesticide residues