Green revolution in India has bypassed the remote places like hills. Farmers who are struggling for survival under unfavorable conditions like hills need focus. In Uttarakhand, only 13.62 per cent is the net cultivated area. Agriculture in Uttarakhand is primarily confined to lower and mid hill regions and is basically subsistence in nature.

shakuntala, 60, of Chamarpura village in Moradabad district in Uttar Pradesh continues to carry her traditional occupation of manual scavenging. She has no other alternative. On March 18, 2007, the

on march 9, 2007, a fire in a scrap godown in an unauthorised colony in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (up), killed a young boy and left many injured. The cause of fire is still unknown. The godown is

The future of the Tawa Matsya Sangh (tms), a cooperative of fisherfolk operating in the Tawa reservoir in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad district, is firmly on hold. On December 23, 2006, their licence

poisonous smoke from the burning of a dump of batteries in Ghaziabad spread on January 8, 2007. One woman succumbed due to the smoke, others complained of nausea, headache, coughing and vomiting.

the 2007 Union budget has brushed representations for tax reliefs from the pesticide industry. While environmental groups are relieved, pesticide manufacturers have criticised the government's

the Tamil Nadu government has brought the Bt Cotton seed issue back into focus by banning the sale of seeds from Mahyco over complaints of crop failure in Dharmapuri district. Bt Cotton varieties

Following farmers' protests against their displacement for land acquired for special economic zones (sezs), the central government on January 22, 2007, held up approvals for fresh sezs. So far, the