March 2016
700-year-old traditional Holi of Adivasis of Maharasthra
The peace and tranquility of the villages on the foothills Satpura hill ranges in Maharashtra had taken a back seat for the past 15 days, as the atmosphere was charged with singing and dancing. Members of the Bhil tribe of the Satpura Hill regions from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh...
Young Kashmiri blown to pieces for tearing posters of renegade
Yusuf, a young man from Kashmir was blown to pieces, tied to a mine and a boulder in a local forest by the Indian Army on 3rd February 1999 without any substaintial proof that he was part of a militant outfit. He was picked up the night before the fateful...
Ghost beneficiairies of MGNREGA in Maharashtra
Vijay Vadvi, resident of Maharashtra has ‘received’ Rs. 1,45,000 pay sanction in his bank account, under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) between 2006 to 2013. What is shocking is that Vijay has never worked one day under the scheme. Vijay, a full-time activist with the Narmada Bachao...
Farmers await compensation for damage by wild animals
As rapid urbanization cuts into India’s forests, animals and humans have come into increasing conflict. Apart from in the wild, the human-wildlife conflict is most concentrated and impactful within agricultural regions bordering the wildness. The villages of Saraipali and Gourmudi, which border the vast forests of Chhattisgarh have recently been...
Only 2 teachers teach 226 students in this school
At Uttardariyapur Primary School in Malda, West Bengal, two teachers, one of them the head master, look after and teach 226 children, varying in age from 6 to 12 years. The school is from Standard I to Standard V. They have to teach bengali, english, maths, environmental sciences….. According to...
Forest Ranger of Shot Dead by a Timber Smuggling Ikhwan in Kashmir
Forest Ranger Ghulam Mohammed Khan of Kangan Ganderbal, Kashmir, was picked up by Nazir Gurra, an infamous renegade from Ikhwan, a pro-government militia in Jammu and Kashmir, on June 1999. Few hours later his family heard a few gunshots nearby which claimed his life. The slain ranger’s body was found...
Apparently, this is a ‘Road’ in West Bengal
Potholes are an everyday occurrence on Indian roads – big or small in most cities and villages. In big cities, when one finds such stretches of road travelers take an alternative route but what if there are no alternative routes? For 11,000 inhabitants of a village called Nagrakata in West...