This week’s environment and conservation news stories rolled into one.
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It is not COVID-19 alone, but also the environment and the economy
Managing editor S. Gopikrishna Warrier writes the COVID-19 pandemic gives the world an opportunity to think, what is the economic cost if we only talked about development and did not take the environment into consideration.
“Must not target ethnic groups and create prejudice over COVID-19”
K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), discusses the urgent need to begin multi-disciplinary consultations, multi-sectoral action and nipping xenophobic rumours associated with COVID-19 in the bud.
Could tribal honey hunters help save the bees and improve our food security?
With climate change and pesticide abuse threatening bees across the world, the Nilgiri tribal people show the way ahead by reverting to their traditions to further bee conservation.
Indian scientists building DNA database to protect the elusive red panda
Though red panda related crimes are relatively low in India, experts advise threat assessment, population estimations, boosting community conservation initiatives and creating DNA databases at regional levels.
Caught between floods, protests and a pandemic, ecotourism operators bat for resilience
Despite their losses, a section of ecotourism operators and grassroots conservation workers have risen up to the challenge of stopping further spread of the viral disease.
[Commentary] Crackdown on wet markets and illegal wildlife trade could prevent the next pandemic
Wet markets selling wild meat of different species present an acute health hazard and need to be looked into urgently in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Prerna Singh Bindra.
[Book Review] Travelling through India’s wildlands in the time of social distancing
Wild Treasures is a skillfully-compiled anthology of some of Asia’s most wondrous natural UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Pollution watchdog releases guidelines to handle COVID-19 biomedical waste
Doctors stated that biomedical rules are already being followed but admitted that in overcrowded hospitals and those that are not in major cities, it becomes more of a challenge.
Uncertainty looms over climate change and biodiversity talks in 2020
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has forced the United Nations to cancel several meetings or go digital, ahead of the crucial COP 26 to be held in November 2020.
A perilous bundling: global response for COVID-19 and climate action
Linking the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis cannot be compared due to the timescale within which these hazards impact the human society, writes Sayanangshu Modak.