Silt has left the Hooghly shallow. Haldia port faces closure Silt deposits at the mouth of the Hooghly river have rendered Haldia port nearly unnavigable, raising fears that India

It was a profitable venture in the the 1980s and 1990s. But shrimp farming, the livelihood of many in the Sunderbans, has hit a terrible low. MAUREEN NANDINI MITRA finds out why Squatting on the slippery, clay-covered jetty, her thin cotton saree dripping wet, Meena Sahu, scoops water out of her bucket with a broken clam shell, transfers it to a white enamelled iron bowl and counts the fine,

Buckwheat gives Sikkimese a healthy alternative to wheat In the high slopes of Sikkim, where difficult terrain, acidic soil and long dry spells make farming an arduous task, buckwheat is grown plentifully along with other traditional crops. The hardy, low-maintenance crop flourishes on poor soil and has a growing season of only 12 weeks. And it grows so thick that it smothers weeds and adds

Retail off-limit for German wholesale giant, but West Bengal traders are wary German wholesale major Metro Cash and Carry recently ran into rough waters in Kolkata when Forward Bloc leaders tried to block the renewal of the company

Caught between the state and Maoists, people are the casualty

Vidyasagar Setu spurs illegal business in coal the Hooghly River Bridge Commission (hrbc) has begun filling up deep holes at the base of the Vidyasagar Setu on the Howrah side of the bridge that coal pilferers had dug up over two decades. The state-run commission initiated the work after it apparently learnt about the diggings allegedly by an organized network in June following a media

with early Lok Sabha polls seeming inevitable, West Bengal

New fuel for Kolkata vehicles kolkata may soon become the first city in India to have vehicles running on methane if a deal between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ongc), a private gas distribution company, and the West Bengal government goes through. ongc and Calcutta Compressions and Liquefaction Engineering, a Kolkata-based company, signed a memorandum of understanding on July 10