Kol and Mawasi tribes of Satna MP die of hunger

Frontline  Volume 25 - Issue 22 :: Oct. 25-Nov. 07, 2008 DEPRIVATION Dying of hunger AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA in Satna Malnourished tribal children die because ICDS schemes are all but non-existent, and the government is in denial. PRAMOD PRADHAN  At Hardua village in Ucchera block of Satna district, a child with Grade 3 malnourishment and suffering from skin infection. THE final five kilometres to Ramnagar (Khokla), as the village is officially called, in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh has to be done on foot down a hill thick with shrubs and bushes. As we enter the village, eager eyes scan us for food or some other kind of livelihood support only to droop in disappointment once they learn that the wait has been in vain. The people of the Kol and Mawasi tribes who inhabit this village are a desperate lot: they have neither employment nor food, and their malnourished children are dying. In the past four months at least four children have died and those standing by the side of their elders had protruding stomachs, sunken eyes, wrinkled legs and slightly deformed heads, all symptoms of malnutrition.   more

N. Korea blacks out cell phone use to stop news of worsening food crisis

Sat, Oct 25  2008 02:05 PM

London, Oct 25 (ANI): North Korea is clamping down on mobile phones and long distance telephone calls to prevent the spread of news about a worsening food crisis, the United Nations investigator on human rights for the isolated communist country has said.

Thai law professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, in a report to the UN General Assembly, said that its government is using public executions as a means of intimidating the population, and using spies to infiltrate and expose religious communities, The Times reported.

His report came two days after the World Food Programme said that two thirds of North Koreans do not have enough to eat, in the country's worst crisis since as many as three million people died of famine a decade ago. more 

Earthworms in Agriculture

Opening A Can Of Worms: Serendipitous Discovery Reveals Earthworms More Diverse Than First Thought

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2008) — Scientists have found that the UK's common or garden earthworms are far more diverse than previously thought, a discovery with important consequences for agriculture.

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See also:

Plants & Animals

• New Species
• Soil Types
• Nature

Earth & Climate

• Exotic Species
• Ecology
• Rainforests

Reference

• Earthworm
• Vermicompost
• Soil life
• Organic gardening

BBSRC-funded scientists at Cardiff University, led by Dr Bill Symondson and performed in the laboratory by postdoctoral scientist Dr Andrew King and undergraduate student Ms Amy Tibble, have found that many of the common earthworm species found in gardens and on agricultural land are actually made up of a number of distinct species that may have different roles in food chains and soil structure and ecology.

This discovery was made when efforts to develop better tools to identify earthworm DNA in the guts of slug and worm-eating beetles produced some very unexpected results.

Dr Symondson said: "When we were working to find new tools to detect earthworm DNA we started getting results that were not really what we expected to see and that indicated the presence of several new earthworm species. After investigating this further we eventually found that there are significant numbers of what we call 'cryptic species'. These different species live in the same environment and have the same outward appearance, but do not interbreed and have clearly distinct DNA sequences."

"Earthworms play a major role in the agricultural environment because they are involved in many soil processes such as soil turnover, aeration and drainage, and the breakdown and incorporation of organic matter. For this reason, they have often been the subject of research into, for example, ecology and toxicology. It is vitally important that we know exactly which species we are studying, in case they respond differently from one another – to agrochemicals or heavy metals in the soil, for example."  more 

Towards the ideal of a hunger-free India by M.S. Swaminathan

The Hindu, October 2, 2008

Achieving the goal of nutrition security for all Indians will need a fusion of political will and action, professional skill, and peoples’ participation.

“To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is work and promise of food as wages.” These were the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he was healing the wounds arising from the Hindu-Muslim divide at Naokhali in 1946. He thus stressed the symbiotic bonds among work, income and food security. Eradication of hunger and poverty is also the first among the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which in my view represent a global common minimum programme for human security and well-being.

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In 1981, Indira Gandhi suggested after meeting Vinoba Bhave at the Paunar Ashram in Wardha district that the district should be converted into a “Gandhi district,” since Gandhiji spent an important part of his life there. She asked me to chair a small group to prepare a blueprint to develop Wardha into “Gandhi district.”

Our first task was to develop a definition for a Gandhi district. We defined it as one where no one is below the poverty line and no one goes to bed hungry, not because of doles but because of opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. In other words, bread with human dignity was to be the hallmark of the proposed district.

At that time, over 80,000 families were below the poverty line and hence specific suggestions were given to raise all these families above the poverty level by creating opportunities for productive and remunerative work. Unfortunately, this plan to dedicate Wardha to Gandhiji is yet to be implemented. Even now, it will be worthwhile to update the report and transform Wardha into a hunger-free and poverty-free district dedicated to Gandhiji.  

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