The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new scheme to ensure five crore women under the poverty line will be provided with free cooking gas connections.
2. The central government will investigate the death of 12 people, including children, at a government home for those with special needs near Jaipur, allegedly due to water contamination.
3. Indian Air Force pilots will this week take part in American Red Flag war games, which simulate combat.
The Big Story: Slow burn
The fires continue to rage in Uttarakhand's forests. They now cover more than 1,890 hectres, and have killed six people. Despite this, several experts don't seem unduly bothered about the impact of the blaze, beyond the immediate danger to people around it. This is apparently because most of the blazes are ground fires, not "crown fires": they aren't so severe that the forest will not be able to regenerate.
But that doesn't make them natural. Analysts by and large acknowledge that most forest fires in the region are man-made. Several likely causes have been laid out, from forest dwellers for setting fires to clear ground to grow grass for livestock, to conspiracy theories about a timber mafia working with villagers to exploit burnt forests.
This doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous. Two droughts in a row have left Uttarakhand's forests particularly dry and the lack of pre-monsoon showers means that the wood is parched and ready to burn. In situations like this, a small routine act of burning to clear the land could easily get out of hand and turn into a massive disaster.
Satellite pictures actually show that forest fires in Uttarakhand multiplied by nearly four times in the 24 hours from between April 30. The authorities don't yet have the wherewithal to entirely end the blaze, even with the Army and Air Force joining, unless the weather ends up giving them some help.
Whoever the blame falls on – whether it is villagers, landlords or timber smugglers – the forest fires covering the state are a reminder that climate change and the effects of shifting populations could easily turn a routine event into a disaster.
Politicking & Policying
1. The government has clarified that Hurriyat leaders are free to meet Pakistani leaders since they have the freedoms due to all Indian citizens.
2. The Goa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been left unsettled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's demand for people to vote against it, unless government grants to English-medium schools are withdrawn.
3. An officer in the Central Bureau of Investigation has complained of corruption in the coal scam, saying huge amounts of money exchanged hands.
4. Junior Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam has complained of "sledging" in international trade talks by countries that want to portray India as obstructionist.
Punditry
1. Nitin Sethi in the Business Standard tells the story of a district in Manipur that will not bury its dead.
2. Trupti Desai in the Indian Express writes of her right as a woman to enter the inner sanctum of religious structures.
3. Ajay Shah in the Business Standard writes of the uncomfortable sight of e-commerce companies hoping to succeed through quasi-monopolistic "network effects".
Don't Miss
Sohini Chattopadhyay explains how Mamata Banerjee is using expanding the Trinamool Congress' reach by doling out funds to neighbourhood clubs.
"Many of the 7,500 clubs may have emerged in response to Banerjee’s dole but the paara club is an important element in Kolkata’s history. They go back possibly a century and a half to the physical culture associations in Kolkata that came up in the wake of the National Movement. In his book Nation At Play, the academic Ronojoy Bose has described how the British colonial administration’s "denigration" of the Bengali as effete provoked the anxiety for the "masculine body" and led to the establishment of both Western-style athletic sport associations and traditional sport centres such as akharas. One of the greatest moments in the theatre of national movement came with the defeat of the East Yorkshire Regiment by the largely barefoot team of Mohun Bagan Club in July 1911."
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