Jay Mazoomdaar
Read biographyRecipient of a number of journalism awards and prizes, including those from International Press Institute, Commonwealth Press Union and Prem Bhatia Trust, for his investigative reports, Jay Mazoomdaar’s focus is on environment, development, community and conflict. An independent journalist based in Delhi, he also dabbles in political and sports writing and films occasional documentaries.
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How the middle class is responsible for perpetuating poverty
I am no fan of communist regimes and their totalitarian ways. In Bengal where soaring unemployment was blamed on the disastrous Left trade unionism, I grew up reading sordid tales of repression and watching forlorn black-and-white pictures of ill-clothed people waiting in long food queues on the streets of the #Communism #Europe #HowThisWorks #India #MIddle Class #Poverty #social reforms
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Lessons from those splendid but empty European forests
A few days back, I was walking the fascinating old forests of Boubinsky Prales in southern Czech Republic. A few patches of virgin wilderness, primarily beech forests with more than 200-year-old spruce and fir trees dotting the higher slopes, still survive in the Sumava mountains as the second oldest natural #ConnectTheDots #Tigers #Wildlife
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Time to put the leash on irresponsible pet owners
Salespersons are not allowed in my walled, gated housing complex. Even the regular service boys and helps who come in daily need to be verified by the guards and checked with specific apartment owners over intercom. I need to put in a formal request when my guests have to park #Animal birth control #dogs #Pet owners #stray dogs #ToWhatEffect
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Media’s credibility rests on journalists, not the owners
While it took the collapse of the Sharadha group to bring the plight of journalism under focus, tainted money and dubious motive have been running scores of news organisations. Such owners and investors make unethical demands of journalists and find enough takers among the greedy, the gullible and the desperate #India #Media Watch #Sharadha group #Times of India
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Share lions, forget cheetahs: layers of hurt Gujarati pride
This is not about Narendra Modi. Well, mostly. There are other Gujaratis worth mention too. One is Dr MK Ranjitsingh, a former secretary of the government of India who drafted the Wildlife (Protection) Act in the early 1970s. Then there is Dr Divyabhanusinh Chavda, former president of WWF-India and renowned #Asiatic lions #ConnectTheDots #Gujarat
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Ambedkar jayanti: It’s not enough for parties to just break bread with Dalits
The Delhi unit of the BJP sent out a routine SMS yesterday to a number of journalists in the city, requesting coverage of the party’s celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti. The city state will go to the polls in six months and wooing Dalits makes perfect political sense in an election #Ambedkar jayanti #B. R. Ambedkar #Dalits #PoliticsDecoder
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Rahul, Modi are wrong: India is neither a beehive nor a filmi mother
It is astonishing, wondered George Eliot, what different results one gets by changing the metaphor. More astonishing is what those results tell us about ourselves. Last week, Rahul Gandhi talked of India as a beehive bristling with enterprise. Promptly, Narendra Modi shot back that the metaphor insulted the idea of #Beehive #ConnectTheDots #Mother India #Narendra Modi #Rahul Gandhi
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Mystery of Maharashtra’s happy sugarcane leopards
A recent paper, Big Cats in Our Backyards, published by the journal Public Library of Science has made headlines by reporting up to six resident leopards per 100 sq km in Maharashtra’s Sangamner region. The big cats hide in the dense cover of sugarcane fields during #HowThisWorks #Maharashtra #sugarcane leopards
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Not switching off lights this evening? It doesn’t matter
I have asked this question a few times since 2007. Are you among those two billion people who will switch off their home, shop or office lights for an hour at 8.30 pm this evening to send a powerful global message that it is possible to take action against climate #Earth Hour #Environment #InMyOpinion #saving electricity #Tokenism
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How green activism relies on shock-and-awe to deliver
Every year since the 1980s, thousands of olive ridley turtles die entangled in fishing nets used by mechanised boats or trawlers along the Indian coast. The numbers are particularly staggering along the Odisha coast where they congregate for arribada or mass breeding. The spectacle of hundreds of dead turtles washed #Green Activism #HowThisWorks #Olive Ridley turtles #Poaching #Tigers