• Monday, 4th May 2026

A worm’s eye view, journalism from the field afar

Picture of Jaideep Hardikar

Jaideep Hardikar

Picture of Jaideep Hardikar

Jaideep Hardikar

Farming and its Crisis

A fateful triangle: tigers, humans and development

The summer of 2025 has ended, and Chandrapur district in Maharashtra counted fresh human casualties in tiger attacks, signalling the…
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Young farmers: educated, unemployed and unmarried

In Yavatmal, and across most of rural Maharashtra, there is a ‘marriage’ crisis: men are unable to find brides; young…
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In Bhandara: a series of strange and unfortunate events

Young people in this Maharashtra district are forced to migrate as there is no work for them in their villages….
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Gondia’s poor still bank on 3Ms: mahua, MNREGA and migration

India’s poorest homes continue to rely on minor forest produce like mahua and tendu leaves, along with the assured Mahatma…
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Bhandara’s youth: jobs not ballot is top of mind

In the first phase of India’s General Elections 2024, the parliamentary constituency of Bhandara-Gondia will vote on April 19. Unemployment…
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Dukkarwale mama is a man in a hurry!

Vitthal Badkhal is a godsend for farmers in and around Chandrapur district and the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. ‘Dukkarwale mama’…
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Chandrapur’s cultivators: farming in fear

Wild animals are attacking people working on land near forest, causing grievous injuries and even fatalities. This comes after price…
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In Kholdoda: a night watch on a machan

For farmers living in and around the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, nightly vigils for their crops are critical and routine….
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Farm alarms: sounds of desperation

Determined to keep out marauding wild animals from nearby tiger reserves and sanctuaries, farmers in Vidarbha are trying battery-operated alarms…
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It’s a new kind of drought

Vidarbha’s farmers reeling under drought and financial stress now have a new worry – raids and killings by wild animals…
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Vidarbha’s pastoralists paying a pandemic price

The Nanda Gaolis and other dairy farmers in eastern Maharashtra are facing losses from the drop in demand for milk…
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‘Tiger! Tiger!’ – a conflict burning very bright

Three-year-old Vihan Kodwate still has nightmares about the tiger attack and clings to his mother, Sulochana….
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The storm brewing in India’s cotton fields

Bt-cotton occupies 90 per cent of the land under cotton in India – and the pests that this GM variety…
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SIT report: pest attack unprecedented, ferocious

The 2017 poisoning wave points to the profuse use of pesticides in Yavatmal and the desperation of Vidarbha’s farmers. In…
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Fumes and fear in Yavatmal

This time, it was pesticide deaths of a different kind: poisoning by inadvertent inhalation. With the pink bollworm back and…
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Lethal pests, deadly sprays

What hit Vidarbha’s cotton belt, especially Yavatmal, late last year? Why were over 1,000 very sick farmers and labourers hospitalised?…
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Between life and death – a drought

The farmers of Thayanur village, Tamil Nadu, are facing a huge crisis that transcends the drought – and as the…
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Distress and death in the delta

A long drought in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta has triggered a series of farmers’ deaths due to heart attacks. The…
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Jaideep-Hardikar

Jaideep Hardikar

Jaideep Hardikar is a senior journalist and PARI Roving Reporter, based in Nagpur. He is author of Ramrao: The story of India’s farm crisis.

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Stories from the Field

A curated gallery of books authored by Jaideep Hardikar, with covers, concise blurbs, critical reviews, and purchase links.

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