Researchers and activists working with the tribals and other forest-dwelling communities pooh-pooh Union environment ministry's recent data on encroachment on the forest land. Unless the Forest Rights Act of 2006 is implemented in both letter and spirit, encroachment will remain a contentious issue.

Every year, as many as 100,000 villagers in Barabanki relocate to temporary shelters when the Ghaghara river inundates their villages and destroys their crops. These rural residents are trapped between the embankments of the river built for flood control. Villages like Tepra are washed away and for the past three years now, people are living on an embankment awaiting compensation and rehabilitation. Will the UP election results change their fate? A ground report.

The state government had launched a scheme in 2017, under which farmers were supposed to receive the difference in the market price and the minimum support price. However, they are unhappy over the delay in payments