"I can assure you one thing that the mountains are changing. And they are changing very fast. There is something we are not doing right,” says Anil Kulkarni, glaciologist, while…
Every few weeks, 53-year-old agricultural entomologist Rajendra Hegde addresses a large gathering in Bengaluru, where he puts forth a proposition: imagine walking up to your rooftops or balconies and foraging…
Five decades ago, findings of the first tiger census set alarm bells ringing in the government. The count of tigers had plummeted to 1,827, which was a sharp decline from…
Buoyed by a “geographer’s heart”, environmental geographer Ruth DeFries started using satellite data in the 1990s to generate global vegetation maps to feed climate models. Unraveling drivers of deforestation in…
Plastic pollution is a significant concern for ocean ecosystems. Although the amount of plastic discarded into the ocean is hard to measure conclusively, estimates reveal that at least 14 million…
A recent study finds that the highly venomous banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus) is likely to be an assemblage of different species across Asia. In recent years, genetic analysis methods have…
Warm and cold climatic spells in the Arctic, over the past 1000 years, imprinted on India’s monsoon fluctuations during that period, a climate reconstruction study finds. Warm Arctic conditions were…
The 2022 Assam floods, following record-breaking rains, were the worst that the state has seen in the last decade. Soon-after, some districts faced a drought-like situation forcing farmers to work…
Domestic livestock differ from wild herbivores in their impacts on soil carbon, and ultimately on climate, a new study shows. And given the increasing use of veterinary antibiotics on domestic…
Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming, reiterates the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Water scientist Aditi Mukherji and one of the…
The Western Ghats of India are broadly divided into three subdivisions — the northern, central and southern — separated by the Goa gap and the Palghat gap respectively. Due to…
The old houses of the Kashmir Valley are living examples of climate-resilient and sustainable architecture. When a massive flood hit the valley in 2014, a major part of downtown Srinagar,…
Fencing is a key conflict mitigation strategy in the Mysore Elephant Reserve in Karnataka, which sees regular cases of human-elephant conflict. Putting up fencing accounts for a significant proportion of…
Recent focus on green building infrastructure could provide an impetus to green or sustainable data centers in India, say experts. Some of the sustainable actions would include reduction in energy…
A seawater-powered lantern with an output in watts; a small hut powered by one to five kilowatts of ocean energy; or a town that could run on megawatts harnessed from…
In a relief to environmentalists and local indigenous population concerned about India’s hydropower ambition in the Dibang river valley region of Arunachal Pradesh, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the…
A new study published in Scientific Reports has mapped priority areas in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) that are highly suitable for mangrove conservation and restoration. The Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve…
Botanist Pervaiz Dar spent a good amount of time in 2012 and 2017 squatting and walking along roadsides in Kashmir, including at mountain pass Sinthan Top, surveying invasive alien plant…
India's finance minister has announced two major programmes for mangrove plantation and wetlands conservation in the country's latest annual budget, drawing a mixed response among the conservation academics who welcomed…
To find solutions to energy security challenges, by diversifying the energy basket, scientists are turning to natural materials. The International Energy Agency (IEA) defines energy security as the ‘uninterrupted availability…
