Environmental changes, including changing rainfall patterns and vegetation, have affected Rajasthan’s desert ecology, impacting local flora and fauna. Rajasthan, the desert state of India, was in the news this July…
Children outgrow their things—clothes, shoes, accessories, even toys—fast. At times, within one season. To keep up with this change, some parents often buy new products, while discarding old items. This…
Almost like in an advertisement for a sanitary napkin company, Chandramani Devi of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district said she felt ‘liberated’ after using cloth pads during her menstrual cycle. “It’s a…
As the number of vagaries of climate extremes increases, so has the disproportionate burden on women and children, finds growing evidence. Policies, however, are yet to catch up and reflect…
Assam’s tea growers are battling many challenges — high production costs, low profit margin, labour problems, and of late, coal shortage. Amid all this, they have found a window of…
Camels were once a prized possession for breeders in Rajasthan. Madhavram Raika, a breeder from Pali district, said that his father owned 150 camels. Of these, both young and adult…
A sudden whirlpool in the usually calm waters surrounding the hills of Meghalaya can mean only one thing – a school of frenzied chocolate mahseer, locally also known as Na.rong,…
More than a month has passed since cyclone Yaas hit the eastern coast in May this year, impacting parts of Odisha, West Bengal, and Jharkhand. Improvement in cyclone prediction system…
Tradition is a strong yardstick by which life is followed in the Banni grassland in Kutch. Spread across more than 2500 sq km, this vast grassland — a thriving ecosystem…
When a strong, 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Assam on April 28 this year, there was panic and mayhem. The earth cracked near the epicentre in the Sonitpur district, and so…
Driving across coastal villages of the Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh, it is difficult to miss the vast swathes of swaying trees on either side of the road. Eucalyptus -…
The month of April, when Rongali Bihu is just around the corner and spring paints every tree with young, delicate leaves and blooming flowers, is Anamika Baruah’s favourite time of…
Thirty-year-old Born Lang Blah from Mawphlang village has vivid memories of his childhood, when men, women, and children would walk downhill to Um Khlaw, the pond to collect water. The…
In a village called Lathedi in Kutch, amid the semi-arid landscape, a small patch of land has been fenced with thorny branches by the local community. The aim, they said,…
When she was a young girl, Sarojini Goyal of the Korba district of Chhattisgarh would often accompany her parents to the nearby forest to collect shoots, leaves, flowers, and fruits…
In Guneri, Kutch, there is a belief that many years ago, when the Indian subcontinent was not as fragmented, a Sufi saint had come to the region and planted two…
Bera in the Pali district of Rajasthan is often nicknamed ‘Leopard Country’. Widely regarded as being home to one of the highest densities of leopards found anywhere, the otherwise shy…
For centuries, the trees in Oran, or sacred grove, near the Samvata village in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer, have stood tall and untouched. Not a branch was cut, “not even for datoon (twig to clean…
Four years ago, when Minoti Naik of the coastal district of Bhadrak in Odisha, decided to send her 17-year-old son to the “city” for work, it was in hope that…
Twenty-three-year-old Radheshyam Pemani Bishnoi in western Rajasthan is one of the fortunate few who has seen the critically endangered great Indian bustard (GIB) in the wild. But it was not…
An independent writer; fifteen years old in the field of journalism. The excitement at the prospect of a story however, remains as fresh as day one.
