Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anemia.

The article gives a case study on malnutrition around Simlipal National Park in India. Because of limited land and user rights inside the National Park, the local population comprising mainly of tribals, lead a tough life bereft of basic infrastructural facilities and practicing bare sustenance agriculture. Malaria coupled with a poor level of nutrition have resulted in a number of deaths of children in this area.

Bibhu Kalyan Mohanty
Executive Director
SAMBANDH
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
sambandhindia@gmail.com