The Jerdon's Courser is the latest endangered species to be caught in the path of unregulated development. Its habitat in wildlife sanctuaries in Andhra Pradesh is threatened by illegal construction activity within the protected lands, and environmental activists have taken the matter to court. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The people-versus-tiger conflict haunts every protected habitat of the beast, and unless relocated communities' needs are met, conservation efforts will remain uncertain. Rajasthan's plans to relocate villagers from Sariska's core zone will have a profound impact on all other tiger reserves, writes Sudhirendar Sharma.

Both for vast array of species it shields and the sustainability of the ecosystems it inhabits, the tiger is the sentinel of the ecological destiny of the whole Indian subcontinent. Malini Shankar says tiger conservation is no longer a mere choice.

Abuse of animals by humans in various garbs is a sad reality across countries and communities. Deeply moved by an HBO documentary, Malini Shankar explains why the issue of animal rights and prevention of cruelty must be inextricably linked to conservation efforts.

Rejuvenation of the Ganga has purportedly grabbed a big share of the new government’s focus, but would plans ignoring the upper Ganga basin really be effective? Shripad Dharmadhikary discusses the findings of an expert body that could be crucial to the agenda.

Since 1980, organic tea consumption has grown by leaps and bounds. India too has joined this new green revolution with many farmers already growing organic tea or converting their plantations to do so. However many barriers have to be overcome before this sector realises its full potential. K V Prayukth reports.

For a number of reasons including frustration with chemical agriculture, improved economic prospects and concern for nature, some farmers in Punjab are growing organic. Kavitha Kuruganti travelled around parts of the state to meet a number of farmers and dealers of organic products last month.

In 25 villages across Rayagada district of Odisha, tribal village women have reclaimed the denuded commons and achieved a remarkable turnaround in food security and livelihoods through eco-friendly alternatives to shifting cultivation. Abhijit Mohanty highlights a few successes of the project.

Bilateral deals will be harder to resist;; India must strengthen the home front as well as regional partnerships, says Suman Sahai.

More than a year after the application for recognising Basmati as a GI was filed, there is still no way to be certain if the grain on our plates is the real thing. As a result, a lot of the rice packed and sold in Haryana is called basmati, and traders in other countries too freely use the name. Varupi Jain reports.

Last year, Reliance Industries Ltd. had filed a geographical indications (GI) application for its Krishna-Godavari gas and Jamnagar petroleum products, despite the fact that the products are not characteristically attributable to geography. Varupi Jain finds that if RIL is granted the GI, it will gain exclusive benefits that it has no rightful claim over.

While single-minded pursuit of exports has helped China touch record growth figures, millions have been left behind, besides incurring huge environmental costs. And without even the limited dose of welfare that China offers its poor farmers, India must wary of copying China's SEZ-approach, writes Bhaskar Goswami.

Three and half decades after a scientist demonstrated the idea, chappals made with areca leaf sheaths have hit the market from Kerala. Shrikrishna D writes about the early success and challenges.

Whether foreign direct invesmtent in retail in India is good or bad should be judged by a reasoned debate based on facts, not hyperbole and exaggeration. Jacob John reports.

It is far from clear if capital exports out of India are good for India. What is apparent, from their enthusiasm, is that Indian companies believe it is good for them. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The drying up of the dollar and the resultant plummet of the rupee reflects on the government's flawed economic strategy. Shyam Sekhar draws upon the famous business fable Who Moved My Cheese? to show the kind of behaviour and actions that could resolve the crisis now.

The ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s dispute settlement body (DSB) in a complaint filed by USA against elements of India’s solar mission is again in the news. Shalini Bhutani helps to piece together the sequence of events and points out how the global trade architecture keeps domestic laws and policies under intense scrutiny.

P Sainath reports on the serious problem of rural hunger in Andhra Pradesh, and the politics of free lunches.
Part II : Hi-tech, low nutrition

The worse things have become in Anantapur district, the more fancy cars have shown up in town. Drought, says P Sainath, is the organised plunder of the poor.

The seed, pesticide and fertilizer dealers are the new moneylenders of the AP countryside. The power this group wields is a vital factor in the ongoing crisis and continuing suicides of farmers. P Sainath continues his series.

Seeds, fertilizer and pesticide dealers are at the centre of a growing controversy in Andhra Pradesh. They are the new moneylenders to a peasantry strapped for credit. P Sainath concludes his series on farmer suicides in AP.

The ongoing agrarian crisis has had a telling impact, causing the lapse of insurance policies of farmers. P Sainath reports.

Calls for the renewal of hundreds of thousands of lapsed insurance policies have begun, reports P Sainath.

It's no longer just landless labourers on the bus to Kutta. Many masons and carpenters are also crossing the border into Karnataka in search of work, spurred on by the collapse of employment in Wayanad. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Wayanad.

The elite wants a society geared to deal with rare disasters but shows no urgency at all when it comes to the destruction of the livelihoods of millions by policy and human agency. P Sainath turns our consciences towards Mumbai's demolitions of tens of thousands of the homes of slum-dwellers.

About the time 50 Dalit houses were set ablaze in Gohana, the country marked 50 years of a law giving effect to the Constitution's abolition of untouchability. As if to rub it in, 25 more Dalit homes were torched the same week in Akola, Maharashtra, writes P Sainath.

There were three 9/11s in history. The New York one of 2001. The neo-liberal one of Chile 1973, and the non-violent one of 1906 - Gandhiji's satyagraha in South Africa. The authors of all three tried to change the world, but only the Mahatma's Weapon of Mass Disobedience helped change the world for the better, writes P Sainath.

Even as the suicides in Vidharbha go on relentlessly, a trend has strengthened these past months. More and more farmers are blaming the Government and even talking directly in their suicide notes to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, writes P Sainath.

Remember how keen so many of our national security experts were on sending our own troops into Iraq alongside those of the U.S.? Remember it was to have been such a good thing for India, asks P Sainath.

After a lull of some years, farmers are being jailed for debt in Andhra Pradesh. Even those in drought-hit districts who cannot repay their loans. Farm unions see the banks as driving a dangerous and explosive process which lets off crorepati defaulters but jails bankrupt farmers owing a few thousand rupees, writes P Sainath.

Several women in Karnataka's Mandya district like Jayalakshmamma, whose husband committed suicide four years ago, still stand up to the unending pressure with incredible resilience, writes P Sainath.

While the number of farm suicides kept increasing, the number of farmers has fallen since 2001, with countless thousands abandoning agriculture in distress, writes P Sainath.

The rural employment guarantee programme is life-saving. This time round, the poor have slightly more money than they did earlier. But all prices are up. P Sainath reports.

Through January the US has seen the loss of 17,000 jobs every day since the meltdown began in September. Here in India, too, things are slipping but the lessons remain unlearnt, writes P Sainath.

The official line is simple. Since we cannot afford to feed all the hungry, there must only be as many hungry as we can afford to feed. The truth is the government seeks ways to spend less and less on the very food security it talks about, writes P Sainath.

The NREGS is restricted to a 100 days a year. The PDS is targeted to exclude 'APL' families. Only exploitation is universal, writes P Sainath.

There is indeed a vital link between paid news and private treaties. One is in the political sphere. And, second, in the sphere of business and commerce, writes P Sainath.

India has changed greatly in the last two or three decades, but maybe we can still choose not to run each other out. Dilip D'Souza narrates a story from another time.

A better tomorrow must be for us all, not just for the middle and upper classes. This has little to do with morality, altruism or idealism, but much more to do with realism says Dilip D'Souza.

Left to “take its own course”, the law invariably manages to meander into a dead end. Time to make it chart a more meaningful course, says Dilip D’Souza.

Dilip D'Souza contrasts the unquestioned annual increases in the defence budget with the real challenges of security faced by civilians.

In Samiyarpettai, sub-collector Rajendra Ratnoo had put together a disaster management plan as a test case just two months ago. When the tsunami came last December 26, Ratnoo's plan worked spectacularly. Over one hundred survived because of Ratnoo's plan. That was an achievement, says Dilip D'Souza.

Close to 5500 hectares of land in six states, acquired for 52 SEZs, were subsequently de-notified and diverted for commercial purposes! Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to this and other findings in the CAG audit of SEZs, which leave several questions unanswered.

Jayaprakash Narayan criticizes Parliament's moves to limit diversity of opinion among lawmakers, and to appropriate all authority to a few powerful leaders.

Environmental jurisprudence is only slowly catching up to the physical and mental costs of noise pollution in urban areas. Sairam Bhat surveys the landscape.

Allegations have been made repeatedly that the penal code's protection against matrimonial cruelty is often abused by women. But no evidence is given to support this claim, says Bikram Jeet Batra.

Years since the adoption of the environment impact assessment law, systemic weaknesses and a token approach to public hearings are defeating its purpose. Kanchi Kohli does a review.

Hopes for India's languishing Freedom of Information Act becoming effective were given a boost on July 20. Subramaniam Vincent reports on the Supreme Court's deadline and implications.

Are death penalties in India being awarded under the most rigorous standards for trials in capital cases? Maybe not. Bikram Jeet Batra on India's current practice.

M R Madhavan presents a brief summary of the proceedings in the national legislative bodies during the Winter 2005 session, which was conducted during Nov-Dec 2005.