Late last year, fishermen began finding dead dolphins, hundreds of them, washed up on Peru’s northern coast. Now, seabirds have begun dying, too, and the government has yet to conclusively pinpoint a cause.

Officials insist that the two die-offs are unrelated. The dolphins are succumbing to a virus, they suggest, and the seabirds are dying of starvation because anchovies are in short supply.

BALANGIR: Infamous for starvation deaths, migration and poverty, Bangomunda block in Balangir district is reeling under water crisis. The scorching heat and drying water bodies are not only taking a toll on the humans, but have impacted the animals as well. The Undeer, Arjuni and Bhuasenjoar Nullah hardly have water and the groundwater has depleted substantially leaving the tubewells defunct.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken up the case of land-grabbing, diversion of forest land on Patharia Reserve Forest, pushing about 300 families of forest dwellers on the brink of starvation, besides rendering them homeless.

The human rights watchdog of the nation registered the case in the matter as vide no 99/3/10/2012 on a complaint filed by the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC) after it conducted a fact finding study of the situation.

The UPA-II has used the Budget to again play politics with hunger. But it has paid no heed to the ticking time bomb of growing social tensions as 58 million Indians living off agriculture slide deeper into poverty.

With 230 million people under-nourished, the country awaits some comprehensive policy intervention from the government to tackle this haunting crisis. One of the most logical measures would be to provide a fixed amount of foodgrain to all citizens. But wouldn’t the costs be enormous, ask sceptics?

Dear Prime Minister,
We welcome the tabling of a National Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha as an important step towards the elimination of hunger and undernutrition in India. However, we feel that the Bill in its current form has some serious shortcomings.
We are writing to propose a simpler and more effective framework for the public distribution system (PDS), which requires only minor amendments of the Bill.

The eastern region of the country, which occasionally hits the headlines for starvation deaths, has turned into a food surplus zone thanks to a special programme launched last year to boost productivity in the area. The government said on Friday that "bringing green revolution in eastern India programme (BGREI)", launched in 2010-11, has resulted in a robust increase in foodgrains production. Rice production from the region is estimated at 562.6 lakh tones, an increase of 19.8% over last year. The increase across the country is estimated at 7%.

BANDA/CHITRAKOOT: Sunita's hands tremble as she picks up a heavy hammer to break a stone boulder in Narhari village, about 40 km from main Banda city. It has been more than three hours since the 18-yearold has been doing what her father Jagat Pal never wanted. "But we do not have any option. She needs to help me in breaking these stones. The lorry may come anytime,'' Pal says.

When the state government is boasting of improving the condition of poor by pumping in massive fund in rural and health sector, at least 10 garden workers are reported to have died of starvation and lack of medical treatment since October 2011 in Assam’s Barrak Valley. The workers who died of starvation were working in Bhuvan Valley Tea Estate, which is closed since October 2011.

The United Nations said on Friday that the famine that has killed tens of thousands of people in Somalia this past year has ended, thanks to a bumper harvest and a surge in emergency food deliveries.

But conditions are still precarious, United Nations officials warned, with many Somalis dying of hunger and more than two million still needing emergency rations to survive.

“The crisis is not over,” said José Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, who just returned from Somalia.