Angered by government support for the POSCO steel plant, hundreds of protestors stormed police barricades in Orissa's Dhinkia. An eye-witness account by MANSHI ASHER APRIL 1, 2008. We are at Patna, a small village in Dhinkia panchayat of Ersama block in the East Coast of Orissa. Now referred to as

Water scarcity is the albatross around our collective neck

The BJP and the Congress' politics over Hogenakkal is undermining national integrity EVEN IN normal circumstances, the regional chauvinistic politics of Karnataka can be detestable. With the state assembly elections round the corner, it has only worsened. Tamil Nadu government's Hogenakkal drinking water project has provided the platform to whip up sentiments in both the states. The project, when completed, would provide safe drinking water to people in the arid districts of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu. Ground water in this region is contaminated

Political tensions over the disputed Hogenakkal water project have eased, but for how long? PC VINOJ KUMAR & SANJANA report

RAJINDER SINGH, India's river man, is distressed at the state of the rivers and demands a quick solution

AS WE TURNED off the sixlane Bangalore-Mysore highway, headed down progressively narrower roads, it seemed like we were going to any other village in rural Karnataka. Ragi and horse gram were spread on the road to be threshed by passing vehicles and the paddy fields were dotted with Egrets and Black Ibis. But as we approached Kokkare Bellur, it became clear that this was no ordinary village: overhead, we saw a few pelicans and from atop several trees came the loud raucous calls of nesting storks.

HOPE AND FUTILITY:March 16, 2008. Padyatris rest at a school in Farah, after a 28 kilometer trek from Agra. The marchers are aged between 11 and 82

The story of Bhopal 1984 is one of ignored warnings, inadequate precautions and absolute indifference to human lives. It was a disaster foretold

In Assam, 61 poachers surrendered last month. Their confessions lay bare the workings of an entrenched racket, writes TERESA REHMAN

The purge of slums to free up real estate in cities began in 1994, through