By Gajanan Khergamker *    In India's North Maharashtra, as tradition has it, Palghar District’s Mokhada taluka bears testimony to Bohada -- the 250-year-old festival that peaks in the last three days, transporting its residents into a magical realm of a mythological past.

By Arup Mitra*  Take the Gita or Durga Saptasati, the ever-assuring lines claim that the manifestation of God on earth is possible again and again. As per the requirements of the human society, incarnations and arrivals of divine souls do take place from time to time.

By Our Representative  The civil society group NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), which has completed its one month of its 100-day dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, has claimed the authorities appear to be bent on refusing to allow any public discussion about the manner in which the premier rural jobs scheme is sought to be undermined by the Government of India.

Counterview Desk  Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA), a newly formed group of community networks consisting of people’s movements and groups resisting colonial conservation, recently organised a week-long padayatra of the indigenous communities of Nagarhole, Karnataka, to protest against the manner in which community lands and forests have been forcibly grabbed to create a tiger reserve.

By Our Representative  In unique a postcard campaign to combat malnutrition, aimed at providing dietary diversity, considered crucial during adolescence, especially among girls, signed by about 40,000 adolescent girls from over 10,000 villages, have reminded Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik that his government's Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which converged with Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman  ( POSHAN ) 2.0 in 2021, is not being implemented in the State.

By Harsh Thakor*  It was heartening to witness the spirit Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguriu resurrected today engulfing regions of Bihar, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. In Rohtas in Bihar on March 23rd, commemorating the three martyrs, Kaimur Mukti Morch staged an impactful rally and conference, portraying the misery and denial of rights of the Kaimur Pathar, an Adivasi community.

By Our Representative On March 24, even as commemorating the martyrs Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on their 92nd martyrdom day, several left-wing students’ organisations -- bsCEM, BASF, Fraternity Movement, SIO, AISA and SFI -- held a protest against the recent action of debarring several students for organising the screening of the banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in Gujarat riots.

By Our Representative  Calling the recent Synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6) a “warning call”, and insisting on the need for “grounded action” to ensure social and ecological justice, well-known civil society organisation ActionAid Association has insisted, governments must work for “quickly closing opportunity of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees centigrade.”

Counterview Desk  Power and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma, in a representation to the DG, Environmental Management Planning and Research Institute (EMPRI), Bengaluru, with copies to senior Karnataka and Government of India officials, even as welcoming a recent EMPRI report which says that over half of Karnataka districts stare at water crisis, has expressed concern whether the top government agency would work out requisite policies.