Panna: The dark underbelly of India’s diamond hub
On a sunny winter afternoon in January, Kusum Bai (name changed), a 40-year-old diamond mine labourer from Kalyanpur village of the Panna district of Madhya Pradesh, had just returned from…
Articles by Manish Chandra Mishra
India records increase in leopard population but real number could be much more
A 60 percent rise in India’s leopard population has been recorded in 2018, compared to 2014, but there is one area in the country, the northeastern landscape, where its population…
As butterfly parks come up for awareness, butterflies continue to lose habitat overall
Colourful and delicate, butterflies are not only beautiful creatures, but also play an essential role in the food chain as well as being indicators of the ecosystem. Of late, butterfly…
Lesser florican on verge of extinction in Madhya Pradesh, a ray of hope in Rajasthan
Described as "elegantly comical" by the late ornithologist Ravi Sankaran, the lesser florican, a bird of open grasslands, has been consistently dwindling in numbers in Madhya Pradesh, with farmers switching…
Deforestation pushes elephants from Chhattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh, increasing conflict
Since the start of the monsoons, Khelavan Singh, a farmer from Mahaman village, Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh in central India, has been trying to sow paddy in his farm.…
The paradox of Chhattisgarh’s summer paddy: high-yielding but water-intensive
Chhattisgarh, one of the largest rice producers in India, has ideal weather conditions and soil for growing rice. However, many farmers have been sowing the paddy crop during the dry…
Chhattisgarh’s tribal women keep vigil on their forests
A group of women sits huddled in a circle for a meeting, in a village in Lundra forest range of Chhattisgarh's Surguja district, about 100 kilometres away from state capital…
It’s hello tourism, bye-bye vultures at MP heritage festival
This weekend, Orchha, a town in Madhya Pradesh’s Niwari district will host a government-driven, three-day international tourism festival, Namaste Orchha. The town is known for its 16th-century monuments built by…
