Hunger is unpalatable. For a government that wishes to assert that it is not callous, it is particularly so. But hunger, with a capital H, is a pill that millions of people in Madhya Pradesh continue to swallow.
"THE tribals need to change their attitude and lifestyle," said R.K. Dixit, the Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) of Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh, in response to a query about continuing reports of children starving to death in the region. The Sahariyas, one of the poorest tribal communities in Madhya Pradesh, live mostly in remote villages with little access to health care.
AFTER the shocking revelation in 2005 that the tigers (Panthera tigris) had vanished from the Sariska reserve in Rajasthan, Ranthambhore, also in the same State, and one of the most popular tiger habitats in the country, is approaching a similar crisis: The National Park may have only 15 big cats left.
Makrana, a small town in Rajasthan, is best known for the pristine white marble that went into the construction of that great monument of love, the Taj Mahal. However, it now attracts attention more for the deaths in the marble quarries.
An agitation in Chhattisgarh against the construction of a dam on the Kurkut river by Jindal Steel is representative of many such popular struggles going on across the country.
