This week’s environment and conservation news stories rolled into one. To receive a weekly email with a roundup of our stories, please sign-up to our newsletter. Chennai water crisis once again…
Using mosquito coils is a common phenomenon in Indian homes and offices but prolonged exposure could have an impact on health, finds a latest study, which looked into common Indian…
It is noon and the scorching heat of Chennai’s sun hits across S. Punitha’s face. She has just filled her first pot for the day from a hand pump in…
When do plants get invasive? Plants that do not occur naturally in a region but proliferate in the area they have been introduced into, and cause several negative impacts (such…
At first glance, a one-metre tall parthenium plant looks innocuous. Its tiny cream flowers, borne on several frail, pale green stalks, dance in the wind. However, packed in each mature…
The orange-finned mahseer or hump-backed mahseer, believed to be endemic to the Kaveri river that flows through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has been an enigma for anglers…
Expressing concern at the neglect of community water resources that are increasingly polluted, India’s top pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), has now come out with a set…
Microscopic plastic particles and colourants have been detected inside the commercially important Asian green mussel Perna viridis from a fishing harbour in Chennai for the first time in a preliminary…
Researcher K Lakshmi Rao is habituated to bee stings. And in her quest across India, to understand what whets the appetite of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), she has been at…
Cameras placed across protected and community forests in the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh recorded six different coat colours of the Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii). In all, the cameras…
The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has announced the launch of Nal Se Jal (Water From Tap), a poll-promise from its 2019 manifesto, to ensure piped water…
To receive a weekly email with a roundup of our stories, please sign-up to our newsletter. Poor urban neighbourhoods more vulnerable to extended effects of heat India is experiencing one…
On a rainy day last week, June 12, as cyclone Vayu was pelting rain on Goa, 400 villagers braving inclement weather, gathered at a community hall. They were there for…
Close to one-third of India’s total land area, 29.32 percent, was undergoing land degradation during 2011-2013 and with rising impacts of climate change, the figure could increase in the coming…
A new study has, for the first time, thrown light on when and from where black pepper (Piper nigrum) had come to India. The species arrived into India from Southeast…
The picturesque Ajodhya hills of Purulia district in West Bengal are turning into a backdrop for a power struggle. Quite literally. Ajodhya hills, located in the easternmost part of the…
As India stares at one of the longest heatwaves in three decades, which so far has claimed over 200 lives, experts warn that the spell will impact people in poor urban…
Reading Cities and Canopies is like sitting through an Indian family gathering. There's the know-it-all uncle, the remedy-ready grandmother and the botany graduate cousin, who all have something to share…
The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching at Raipur locality in Jadavpur, off south Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is…
Two months ago, when the rest of the country was preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, 22-year-old Kanchan Kalyan Dongre’s life was about to take a turn for the worse.…
