On February 6, the U.S. and India announced that they have reached a framework for an interim reciprocal trade agreement which lists tariff reductions on several products traded between the two countries. However, the announcement has raised concern among farmer groups and food security activists over potential increases in agricultural imports, including genetically modified (GM) grain.

The India-U.S. joint statement says, “India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.” India has also agreed to address long-standing non-tariff barriers affecting U.S. food and agricultural exports, the statement says. The interim agreement serves as a stepping stone to a more comprehensive bilateral trade agreement between the two countries.

Raising concerns over the tariff concessions on U.S. agricultural products, farmer organisations have called for nationwide protests on February 12.

In a statement released on February 7, ASHA-Kisan Swaraj, a farmer network, said removal of tariffs on a wide range of agricultural imports could depress domestic prices, affect farmers and horticulturists, distort feed and livestock markets, and increase dependence on imports.

The group said imports of DDGs and red sorghum could affect farmers growing maize, jowar, and soybean used in fodder and animal feed. It also raised concerns over soybean oil imports, particularly at a time when soybean farmers are reporting distress in Maharashtra, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

The network also raised concerns about potential imports of GM food and feed products under the trade framework, particularly soybean oil and DDGs, which will mostly come from GM maize.

Under current regulations, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) requires imported food products linked to 24 notified crops to carry a non-GM origin and GM-free certificate. The order, released in 2020, includes maize, soybean, wheat, and a few others.

In the interim agreement, the U.S. will apply a reciprocal tariff of 18% on products like textile and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, home décor, artisanal products, and certain machinery. It has also agreed to remove tariffs on certain aircraft and aircraft parts. Besides, both countries have agreed to establish rules of origin to ensure that the agreement’s benefits predominantly flow to the United States and India.

The joint statement adds that India intends to purchase $500 billion worth of U.S. energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next five years.

Banner image: Farmers protest at a Delhi border in 2020. Image by Randeep Maddoke via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The Indian government has launched a new Environmental (Protection) Fund which centralises the collection of penalties and compensation under India’s primary pollution laws. The Rules of the new fund were notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change on January 15, in consultation with India’s Comptroller and Auditor General.

Under the new rules, levies collected under the Air, Water, and Environment (Protection) Act are to be deposited with the Environmental (Protection) Fund and then redistributed to states by the Fund’s administrator. The Administrator is the Union Environment Ministry “or anybody as notified by the Central Government,” the notification says.

Previously, State Pollution Control Boards both collected and retained levies like environmental compensation and environmental penalty charges, giving a 25% share to the Central Pollution Control Board. The new Fund requires penalties to be deposited directly to the centralised Environmental (Protection) Fund, before remitting 75% to the State’s Consolidated Funds and retaining 25% with the Centre.

“On receipt of the fund from the Administrator, the respective Department dealing with environment issues of each State or Union territory shall credit the amount in a reserve fund under the Public Accounts of the State,” the new rules say.

These funds can be utilised for 11 specific activities, including the installation and maintenance of environmental monitoring equipment, research relating to clean technologies, awareness building, and capacity building for pollution control boards, urban local bodies, and the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, among others.

The rules also allow limited payments towards administrative expenses, like payment of salaries for contractual staff, but not exceeding 5%. It explicitly prohibits expenditure towards medical expenses, taking foreign trips, construction work, and buying office equipment.

Previous reports have suggested a gross underutilisation of funds from environmental levies by the State and Central Pollution Control Boards. In 2024, the CPCB told the National Green Tribunal that 80% of funds collected through environmental compensation and other levies had remained unspent. Guidelines issued in 2019 had outlined how States and Central Pollution Control Bodies should spend these funds. Many of the same activities find mention in the new rules.

Under the new rules, the Environmental (Protection) Fund will be monitored by the Comptroller Auditor and General of India, with reports laid down in Parliament or State legislatures.

Banner image: Weeds being removed from Doddajala lake on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

The Indian government has set emissions reductions targets for four more high-emitting industries as part of its upcoming compliance-based carbon market. These are the secondary aluminium, petroleum refinery, petrochemical and textile industries. Secondary aluminium refers to aluminium produced from recycled scrap.

The additions were made as an amendment to the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules on January 16, which were officially notified in October 2025. The additions take the total number of industries covered by the scheme to eight, three months after it initially covered the aluminium, cement, chor-alkali, and paper and pulp industries.

The targets make it legally binding for industries listed to reduce their emissions. If industries perform better than their targets, they can generate carbon credits for trade on the compliance carbon market. However, failing to meet the target results will result in the payment of environmental compensation equal to twice the amount of the average carbon credit in the evaluation year. Industries are obligated to meet targets over two compliance years, 2025-2026 and 2026-2027.

According to an analysis by the CEEW, delays in operationalising the carbon market have led to less stringent targets and a missed opportunity in reducing an additional 2.8 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent (CO2e) by 2027. The government also planned to include the iron and fertiliser industries in the carbon market, but has failed to set targets for them so far. “Lower stringency could reduce the overall mitigation achieved under the scheme and lead to a potential oversupply of carbon credits, especially since the targets look achievable for sectors such as aluminium, iron and steel, and cement,” the analysis says.

The carbon market has the potential to reduce 47.84 metric tonnes of CO2e by 2027 if it covers all the sectors planned, as per the CEEW’s calculations. The targets have been calculated as emissions reductions per unit of output, to correspond with India’s goal of reducing its emissions intensity by 45% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The industries covered by the scheme are responsible for approximately 20% of India’s total emissions. The cement, iron, and steel sectors account for the largest shares.

Critics have also pointed out the exclusion of the power sector in the carbon trading scheme – India’s biggest emitter, responsible for 39% of emissions. “Excluding the power sector, significantly reduces the covered emissions and the possible reductions from them would be marginal,” the Centre for Science and Environment had said.

Banner image: An aluminium factory. Representative image by uc_rusal_photo_gallery via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

A newly described gecko species from Odisha’s Eastern Ghats is adding to growing evidence that the region’s biodiversity remains far from fully documented. The species, Hemidactylus kalinga sp. nov., formally described in the journal Herpetozoa is endemic to the northern Eastern Ghats. The gecko species is also the second endemic Hemidactylus species from Odisha, after H. paucifasciatus, and only the fourth endemic reptile recorded from the state.

Research about the Eastern Ghats is limited compared to the extensive scientific literature and decades of research focussed on the Western Ghats. However, these hill ranges are increasingly being recognised as important centres of reptile endemism. They harbour a diverse assemblage of lizards, including geckos from the family Gekkonidae, skinks from Scincidae, and a leopard gecko from Eublepharidae.

Within the genus Hemidactylus, the H. prashadi clade — of which H. kalinga is a part — is the most species-rich, currently comprising 23 species across India. Several lineages within this clade – a group of evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor – remain poorly understood, pointing to the likelihood of additional cryptic species.

“The significance of this discovery lies in the fact that we are still uncovering a remarkable number of new reptile species in India,” says lead author Pratyush P. Mohapatra of the Zoological Survey of India. “In regions such as the Eastern Ghats, systematic sampling has been largely absent, and researchers estimate that at least 10 to 15 new gecko species are still awaiting discovery.” Advances in molecular taxonomy over the past two decades, he adds, have been crucial in clarifying species boundaries and identifying cryptic diversity that was previously overlooked.

H. kalinga itself was known to scientists earlier but had never been formally described. “This discovery provided an opportunity to address that gap and give the species a scientific identity,” Mohapatra says.

The Kalinga rock gecko is a large-bodied, rock-dwelling species, reaching a snout–vent length of about 105 mm. It has an olive-brown body marked by four pale transverse bands. The species is found among rocky outcrops and forested hill slopes in moist and dry deciduous forests at elevations between 156 and 746 metres and has been recorded from several districts in Odisha. It takes its name from the Kalinga region of Odisha where it was found.

Beyond taxonomy, the discovery also highlights conservation concerns. Mohapatra points to the example of Hemiphyllodactylus minimus, a tiny gecko found in a sacred grove in Maharashtra, whose habitat was degraded after temple renovations introduced artificial lighting. “Even small, seemingly protected landscapes can be highly vulnerable,” he notes.

Understanding new species and their ecological roles, researchers argue, is essential for designing effective conservation strategies — especially in fragile and understudied landscapes such as the Eastern Ghats.

Banner image: Hemidactylus kalinga sp. nov. Image by Pratyush P. Mohapatra.

Elderly and middle aged populations with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases due to long-term air pollution exposure, a Chinese study has found.

Researchers from a hospital affiliated with the Northwest University in Shanxi Province used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to track the effects of air pollution exposure in older diabetics. The CHARLS is a nationally representative survey of adults aged 45 years and older.

The study followed the progress of 5,430 eligible participants over four years using 2011 as a base line, dividing them into four groups: participants with no diabetes and no new cardiovascular disease at baseline and during follow-up; participants with no diabetes but with new cardiovascular disease at baseline and during follow-up; participants with diabetes but no new cardiovascular disease at baseline and during follow-up; and participants with diabetes and new cardiovascular disease at baseline and during follow-up.

New cardiovascular disease occurrence was determined via self-reports by participants, while diabetes was diagnosed per American Diabetes Association criteria. Cardiovascular disease included incidence of myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, angina pectoris, congestive heart failure, stroke, and other heart diseases.

The prevalence of cardiovascular disease was found to be 13.8% among participants with a history of diabetes, compared to 8.5% of those without. For each interquartile range increase in pollutant concentration, cardiovascular disease risk increased by 19 to 28%, with PM10 showing the strongest association. Other pollutants included in the study were PM1, PM2.5, and ozone.

The researchers used Inflammatory Lipid Ratio, a biomarker, to capture vulnerability to cardiovascular disease. Air pollution, when entering the blood stream, can cause widespread inflammatory responses in the body which cause tissue damage. “ILR may exacerbate the inflammatory response and lipid metabolism disorders, which in turn increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients,” says the study, adding, “Given the heightened inflammatory state and lipid metabolic imbalance in diabetic patients under chronic air pollution exposure, tailored therapies may be needed.”

Though the data is from China, the study has implications for India, where high levels of air pollution are chronic during peak winter months. India also has one of world’s highest disease burdens for diabetes, with approximately 90 million adults diagnosed with the disease.

A landmark study from Delhi and Chennai found exposure to PM2.5 pollution to raise blood sugar levels and increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Banner image: A blood sample is collected from a diabetic patient a health camp in Kolkata, West Bengal. (AP Photo/Bikas Das, File)

On December 29, the Supreme Court put in abeyance a contentious definition of the Aravalli hills which it had adopted just weeks ago.

Last month, the Supreme Court had accepted a government-led committee’s suggestion to define the Aravalli hills as landforms with elevations above 100 metres from ground level. A range would constitute two such hills falling within 500 metres of each other. The Court had taken up the issue to define the Aravalli hills on its own, to avoid “conflicting judgements” in two ongoing cases related to mining in the hill range.

The definition was widely criticised for being exclusionary and inconsistent with the range’s geological and ecological characteristics. Following a public outcry, on December 29, a bench led by newly appointed Chief Justice Surya Kant decided to revisit the matter and stay the contentious definition till “a fair, impartial, independent expert opinion” on the matter is sought.

The Court noted that the new definition left room for ambiguity, especially about whether the new definition broadens “non-Aravalli” areas and reduces the scope of protected areas. It also sought clarification about whether the “the widely publicized criticism” that the new definition would only protect 1,048 hills out of 12,081 in Rajasthan, was correct.

“Such an inquiry would involve the precise measurement of all hill and hillock elevations to facilitate a more nuanced and ‘measured’ assessment of the criteria required to maintain the structural and ecological integrity of the entire range,” the Court said, adding, “There is a dire need to further probe and clarify to prevent any regulatory gaps that might undermine the ecological integrity of the Aravalli region.”

The Court has tasked a new High Powered Committee “comprising domain experts” to critically assess the government-led committee’s proposed definition, and investigate five areas in particular: a specific enumeration of the specific regions covered by the new definition, the territories that would be excluded by it, an analysis of whether “sustainable mining” within the covered areas “would result in any adverse ecological consequences,” and an evaluation of the short and long term environmental impacts of the suggested definition.

Apart from experts, the Court has also instructed the Amicus Curae K. Parameshwar and the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee to aid the assessment.

“This stay shall remain in effect until the present proceedings reach a state of logical finality,” reads the order, adding that in the interim, the Forest Survey of India’s suggested definition from 2010 should be adopted.

The Forest Survey of India recommends defining the Aravallis as hills with gentle slopes of three degrees or more, with a buffer of 100 metres around the slope’s downside.

Banner image: Aravalli hills in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Image by Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).