Conversations with Viggnesh V over a cup of coffee, quickly turn into an education about brewing, blends, moka pots and biodynamic farming. He can talk at length about his travels to obscure, forested hills in Tamil Nadu, and his meetings with coffee farmers there while also going over the process of pouring the perfect cup. “Besides the payment directly going …
The recently announced Indian grant of ₹75 crore, for development projects targeting Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils, will be used primarily for the education and health sectors in the island’s long-neglected tea estate region, according to Jeevan Thondaman, Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development. The grant, amounting to roughly $9 million, was among the announcements made by Prime Minister …
An aquatic weed native to some countries in Central and South America, including Peru, is threatening elephant habitats and foraging areas in Valparai, a Tamil Nadu hill station close to the Kerala border, and reviving the risk of human-elephant conflicts in the region. Ludwigia peruviana, which grows fast along water bodies, has infested the majority of the hill station’s swamps, …
Ganesh, a 53-year-old estate worker at the government-run Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation estate in Cherangode, in The Nilgiris district, is a worried man. Managing Director of TANTEA, and Conservator of Forests, D. Venkatesh, said that TANTEA had been recording losses over the last 10 years, and that the government had only returned “unproductive” estate areas, where there was no …
The Supreme Court today adjourned a writ petition seeking direction to the State Wakf Board as well as State Governments to immediately complete the survey contemplated under section 4 of the Wakf Act, 1995 of properties in several Wakf Estates situated in various states. The writ petition stated that the value of properties in various Waqf Board of West Bengal …