Women’s role in agriculture is of the utmost importance not only for developing the rural economy but also in ensuring food security. During COVID-19 lockdown in India, women’s unpaid workload in both domestic chores and care for family has noticeably increased. Here, Dr Pratheepa and Dr Rengalakshmi from the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) describe the situation faced by agricultural labour families in their study area for TIGR2ESS Flagship Project 1 and how women are tackling the lockdown period.

May 22 has been celebrated as ‘World Biodiversity Day’, or ‘International day of Biological Diversity’ since 2001, primarily to create awareness among people and enhance efforts towards conserving biological diversity in land and waterscapes across the world. Each year the biological diversity day observes a theme that aids in the conservation efforts. This year the theme: ‘our solutions are in nature’.

It is challenging to discuss relevant conservation issues in the middle of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic surge in India. On May 2, World Tuna Day will be observed to promote the conservation and sustainable stock management of this deep sea species.

Bees are one of the busiest species on the planet. A single honeybee will typically visit around 7,000 flowers a day. It takes four million flower visits to produce a one kilogram of honey.

The world observes Bee Day on May 20 to raise awareness about the importance of pollinators and how they contribute to our sustainable developments. Human activities, however, have been increasingly putting bees and other pollinators such as butterflies, bats and humming birds under threat.

The UN Secretary General António Guterres’s call for India to give up coal immediately and reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 is a call to de-industrialise the country and abandon the population to a permanent low-development trap.

At the latest count by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), at the beginning of April, 32 countries had declared, in some documented form , their proposed intention to achieve carbon neutral status by mid-century or thereabouts. Of these, only eight have any firm status, the rest being in the form of proposed legislation or mentions in policy documents.

What has become clear since the lockdown began is that state governments have taken the lead in the absence of a clear plan by the Centre, which seems to be on the lookout for more political capital, as usual.
Modi govt lacks strategic vision in fight against COVID-19

As India enters day 17 of a nation-wide lockdown that began on March 25, three aspects of the Government of India's approach to dealing with the COVID-19 crisis has become increasingly clear.

In contrast to its neighbours, the TN government has failed to invest in public action, instead insisting on channelling all its efforts through the bureaucracy.
Failing to Flatten the Curve: How Tamil Nadu
The Sathankulam custodial deaths, which happened as a result of extreme lockdown policing, are the tip of the iceberg of a COVID-19 crisis that is beginning to engulf Tamil Nadu. New infections are steadily on the rise, as is a death toll, the numbers of which have clearly been underplayed.