Long Reads News - Page 13

India and the Indian: A Traitor's Testimony, and Séance in Kashmir

From our 'Idea of the Indian' series — verses by Malathi Maitri and Aditi Angiras

Miyah poetry: How Assam’s Bengali-Muslims used words to capture a lifetime of oppression and abuse

Assam's Bengal-origin Muslims have found a voice — of protest, of hope and love — in the words of Miyah poetry.

Bhutan's plans for Sankosh dam highlights questions about country's pursuit of hydropower

While India and Bhutan embark on a new hydropower venture with the Sankosh dam, many issues remain unaddressed, related to the two countries, tribals, wildlife and monetary risk.

In North Goa, a local community is fighting to conserve a century-old lake

Local Goa community actively pursues conservation of the Bondov Lake, which is on a high-value real estate area. Their efforts have yielded a consultation that will potentially declare area a wetland.

Bengaluru's Majestic bus station: A portal into the city, with its own stories

Bengaluru city's Kempegowda Bus Station, known locally as Majestic, is 50 years old, celebrating its Golden Jubilee on 2 June. it is a hub for transport, the city's central bus stand, and a place that contains innumerable stories.

NDA's push for agricultural reforms up against centuries of rural economic decline

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has kick-started its second term by setting the ball rolling for “structural” reforms in agriculture, by announcing a task force under the NITI Aayog.

Insects disappearing in India as urbanisation and pollution wreak havoc

With the rapid disappearance of insects, whose cause is attributed largely to their displacement because of urbanisation, the alarming fact is that India lacks records of its insects. Preserving insect population is an urgent priority.

With South Asia home to world's most polluted cities, is toxic smog the new normal for its populace?

South Asia houses 15 of the world's 20 most polluted cities in the world, with such high levels of air pollution that toxic smog has become part of every day life of residents.

South Asia may be better served by decentralised management to meet its water supply needs

Addressing inequitable water supply is at the heart of water management, and many start-ups and young entrepreneurs are slowly making decentralised water management a reality.

Cyclone Fani's unseen cost: Communities that suffered its ravages have taken a mental health hit

Cyclone Fani survivors battle severe mental health problems. A growing body of research has pointed to linkages between mental health and environmental stressors exacerbated by climate change.

San Francisco's Mission Street murals speak of the city's multicultural history, ethos

The Mission District is a Latino hub in San Francisco that also has the densest collection of street murals in all of California. If you are a street art enthusiast, this should be your first stop when you go exploring the city.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur: How dogmatic teen from MP town became Malegaon blast-accused legislator

Sadhvi Pragya's candidature was seen by many within the Sangh as an experiment to test the limits of a country, which is in the process of a churning — a process which rests on the imagination of the Hindu Rashtra.

The Pao of Love: Stories of romance from Mumbai's nooks and crannies, retold on Instagram

The Pao of Love, an Instagram page capturing how Mumbai likes its romance, has managed to squeeze stories out of the city’s promenades and back alleys, packaged as one-minute-reads for a social media-dependent readership. Although some submissions to the page are about love that is as wounding as comforting, it is stories of romantic love that hold the series together. After navigating the thorny terrains of intimacy, the series often leaves a lingering sense of hope behind, sometimes meditative, bereft of the initial bitterness of heartbreak.

Shouldering scars: PTSD can manifest in mystifying ways, as this writer found

My body is the repository of trauma and pain. I have always known this. In my years of being a writer I have realised that there is nothing better than a poem to explain the role physical ailments play in bringing the residues of that trauma, the pain, into our consciousness.

As 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup begins, a look at female footballers' fight for gender equality

The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — expected to be the most-watched edition of the tournament in history — will showcase how much progress the women’s game has made over the years.

Rajaji National Park: In Uttarakhand, a tiger reserve is divided by infrastructure projects

Rail and road projects have divided the Rajaji National Park — one of India’s 50 tiger reserves — into two parts, with a massive impact on the tiger and elephant population

Pune's 2019 Pride Parade focuses on inclusivity, gratitude for SC's decision on Section 377

Pride Parades held after the Supreme Court’s historical decision in 2018, to strike down parts of Section 377, have seen a massive increase in attendance. The Pune Pride Parade was no different; roaring slogans about inclusivity, gratitude towards the Supreme Court, and considerably fewer covered faces defined the event.

In Bhutan, widespread plastic use further threatens vulnerable black-necked cranes

Experts' discovery of plastic in the faeces of the black-necked cranes has raised new concerns around the health, safety and long-term survival of the endangered species

Pakistan's pangolins imperiled as illegal wildlife trade with China flourishes

As illegal wildlife trade flourishes along new trade routes to China, the endangered pangolin is disappearing from Sindh, one of Pakistan’s biggest provinces

Climate change: Indian forests resilient to large shifts in rainfall, new study suggests

Research shows that most forests in India are highly resilient to the impacts of climate change. However, contrary to government claims, forest cover continues to decline due to human activity.

To parade or not: An elephantine problem at Thrissur Pooram

The celebrated elephant that was paraded for the Thrissur Pooram has a history of running amok. Climatic changes have made life tougher for elephants and they often rebel.

Cyclone Fani: In the aftermath, an attempt to rebuild life, return to normalcy in Puri

Puri district was found to be the most affected by Cyclone Fani. The days that followed the storm were a story of desperation and community, of serpentine lines outside government offices and the endless wait for relief supplies

World Turtle Day: Two wildlife biologists are encouraging people to document species in India

Anuja Mital and Sneha Dharwadkar host a celebration every year on World Turtle Day, with a week-long spotting event. They also run a Facebook page called Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India, where they encourage people to post photographs of turtles and tortoises they have spotted all over India. Social media is a good outreach platform and we cannot conserve animals without the help of the community, they say.

Mumbai coastal road project: Photographers document marine life, fishermen who stand to lose

The Mumbai coastal road project threatens the existence of marine life near the shore and endangers the livelihoods of the fishing communities too. Several photographers have been capturing the work-in-progress; the alarming pace of the construction prompted them to urgently highlight the species flourishing in the city’s seabed.

Enter Sultana’s Reality: Exploring the relationship between women and books in India

Through her animated project Enter Sultana’s Reality, artist Afrah Shafiq tells the stories of women who challenged societal conventions, such as Savitribai Phule and Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain. She delves into how reading was seen as something women had to do in addition to domestic work, how it was considered a non-threatening, decorative ability, not something empowering

Brahmaputra dredging: Mega project is superficial answer to drainage congestion, flood management

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