At least two people killed as cyclone bears down on India’s east coast
Bhubaneswar, IndiaReuters A tornado ripped through eastern India on Tuesday, killing at least two people and damaging dozens of homes as a powerful cyclone neared the coast, officials said, while authorities tried to move over a million people to safety from low-lying areas. Cyclone Yaas was powering across the Bay of Bengal and would batter […]
‘A SLY THIEF’: RISING HEAT STEALS JOBS AND LIVES IN EASTERN INDIA
MANIPADMA JENA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, looks at how rising heat is changing lives in the Indian state of Orisha…
Indian state expands work scheme to tackle exploitation
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation An Indian state with some of the country’s highest levels of migration driven by poverty is doubling the amount of paid work it gives some of its poorest citizens, in a bid to curb debt bondage, a common form of slavery. Authorities in the eastern state of Odisha said hundreds of […]
INDIA: BEYOND SHELTER IN A STORM, ODISHA EYES STURDIER HOMES, POWER AND TREES
In the aftermath of Cyclone Fani, MANIPADMA JENA reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation, on how preparations had mitigated damage and the work to rebuild…
India’s Supreme Court orders Kandhamal Christian freed on bail after 10 years in prison
Gornath Chalanseth, one of seven Christians jailed for life for the murder of a Hindu swami in the Kandhamal district of Odisha state in eastern India, has been freed on bail by India’s Supreme Court, World Watch Monitor reports. Nearly 100 Christians were killed and 300 churches and 6,000 Christian homes damaged in the Kandhamal district after […]
Rising heat scorches recovery efforts in cyclone-hit Indian state
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation From the safety of a relative’s house, Mohammed Tazmul Hussein watched coconut trees crashing onto the roof of his home as Cyclone Fani barrelled into eastern India. Two weeks after the cyclone struck Odisha state on India’s east coast, travelling at 200kph and forcing the evacuation of more than one million […]
Mass texting and 50,000 volunteers – how India moved a million people to safety
New Delhi Thomson Reuters Foundation From mass texting to mobilising 50,000 volunteers, the Indian official who masterminded the evacuation of more than a million people revealed on Thursday how they were moved from the path of a deadly cyclone. The state of Odisha on India’s east coast has won global praise for the speed and […]
ESSAY: INDIA’S CYCLONE FANI RECOVERY OFFERS THE WORLD LESSONS IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
MONAJ DORA and ARABINDA KUMAR PADHEE, in an article first published on The Conversation, look at the lessons to be learned in the wake of Cyclone Fani…
New memorial in India commemorates ‘witch’ hunt victims
Thomson Reuters Foundation A memorial dedicated to victims of witch hunts has been unveiled in India’s eastern state of Odisha as part of a campaign to stamp out the branding and persecution of women as “witches”, which is still widespread among poor and tribal communities. Commissioned by the government, the memorial has a statue of […]
Ten years after arrest of their illiterate husbands, Indian wives wait for justice
World Watch Monitor It was around midnight on 4th October, 2008, that Munda and Sanathan Badamajhi, and Durjo Sunamajhi, were arrested by dozens of police in their shanty homes in India’s eastern Odisha state. Ten years on, these three illiterate Christians, from the remote Madaguda area of Kandhamal are yet to return home. The wives of seven Indian Christians imprisoned […]