Dear Reader,
As we marked World Environment Day yesterday (June 05), the conflict between humans and animals has been a vexing issue, especially recently in Kerala, where the depredations of a ‘rogue’ elephant – Arikomban – has played out incessantly in the local media.
TrueCopy Think travels to Idukki in Kerala to produce a documentary that goes beyond mere optics and sensationalism. It delves into how human settlements, the introduction of non-indigenous plant varieties and ill-thought construction in the forests have strangulated the natural relationship between the animals and their habitat. The adverse consequences of this strife also impact the lives and livelihoods of the forest-dwelling tribals in the area.
Even as India’s waste-management market is projected to grow to about $14bn dollars by 2025, traditional waste pickers are being side-lined and invisibilised by the formalisation of the sector. India Development Review analyses the state of the waste-pickers – about forty lakhs of them – and the inability to integrate them into formal structures.
The abysmal state of the healthcare infrastructure, especially in India’s hinterlands, is no secret. However, what comes as a surprise, as The Probe reports, is that just a few kilometres from the national capital, amid Noida’s glam and glitz, public health centres are in an utter state of disrepair and neglect, the system seemingly refusing to learn from the harsh lessons of the recent pandemic.
And, India’s sedition laws have been critiqued for their draconian provisions and their use as a tool to curb dissent. The Supreme Court Observer points out that the recent 279th report of the Law Commission, though suggesting safeguards against misuse, has actually recommended increased punishment and wider application of the Sedition Law.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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