Swine flu virus is mild; unpreparedness resulted in panic fifteen-year-old Preshita Padhye tested positive for H1N1 virus on July 27. She spent the next five days at the isolation ward of the Aundh general hospital in Pune.

Riot-hit farmers keep away from fields; vegetable prices soar Rabindra Singha is staring at a bleak future. His 1.6 hectares (ha) in Rowta Bagan village are lying uncultivated. He lost his yield last year in riots that broke out in Udalguri district of lower Assam in October.

Rural water supply scheme for Andhra has no room for public opinion; price may be hiked later villagers in Andhra Pradesh will soon get their drinking water supply in 20-litre plastic containers. The government has shortlisted five companies that would treat raw water and sell it to villagers. The government thinks this is the best way to supply safe drinking water to villages but

Maharashtra is the first to recognize their rights over forests two villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra have become the first in the country to win community rights over forests under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. On August 15, Ramesh Bang, the state food and civil supplies minister, said the claims of Mendha

Hovering choppers will raise noise levels to 100 dB say activists should helipads be allowed on private buildings in the coastal city of Mumbai? Would the din from helicopters make the city noisier? These are the questions the Maharashtra coastal zone management authority has to decide. On August 4 the authority called a meeting with those lobbying for private helipads and anti-noise

Will people risk giving ride to strangers? car owners in Delhi may be able to save up to 50 per cent travel cost by sharing rides under a citywide carpool scheme proposed by the Delhi transport department aimed at decongesting the city. People who register with the Pan City Mega Carpool (pcmc) scheme can get in touch with other car owners taking the same route as them. A

Oil waste litters Gujarat seafront in early August, Magodh Dhungri, a fishing village on the southern Gujarat coast was invaded by a smell very different from that of drying fish. When the fishermen came out to investigate, they saw lumps of tar-like substance floating on the sea surface; the coast was littered with them.

Shut water supply, lock guards people living in village Vadgaon Dadahari in Beed district of Maharashtra have been inhaling flyash-laden air for the past five years. The pollution is caused by the nearby Parli power plant that generates 690 MW power for the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited. On July 19, when strong winds carried large quantities of flyash

Orders rehabilitation of 900 families affected by Man dam for 12 years, tribal families displaced by Man dam in Madhya Pradesh have been fighting for rehabilitation. On August 11, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court gave them relief by ordering the state to provide two hectares of agricultural land to adult sons of tribal families displaced by the dam. The judgement was

It is agriculture that brought malaria with it if humans had not abandoned their nomadic ways for agriculture, two important events would be missing from the history of civilization: deforestation and domestication of animals. Man would also not have heard of diseases like aids and swine flu. In 2007, the World Health Organization put down the number of people killed by the