Articles by Vivek Gupta

Despite years of discussions to phase out paddy in Punjab, owing to its impact on groundwater, latest data shows that the paddy crop area still dominates agriculture in the state.…

The north Indian union territory of Chandigarh, in its electric vehicle policy released on September 20 this year, aims to phase out fuel-based vehicles and promote electric vehicles by putting…

After a difficult two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Manjeet Singh was hopeful that 2022 would bring some cheer. A farmer from Harigarh village in Punjab's Barnala district, Singh owns…

Even as authorities claim that they are all set to deal with what is now an annual public health crisis, stubble burning in the northern states of India is back…

The opening of the Atal tunnel at the Rohtang Pass in October 2020 has facilitated an unprecedented increase in vehicular traffic in the region, over the past two years. Most…

The summer of 2022 was unkind for the 30-odd farmers of Tandi village in Himachal Pradesh’s cold desert. Over 50% of their crops in the village in Lahaul and Spiti…

Buddha Dariya, in Punjab’s Ludhiana city, was once a clear stream of water, flowing into one of the largest rivers of the state, the Sutlej. Today, it is a stream…

Roshan Lal, 66, is livid. He is yet to come to terms with the damage caused to a forest near his village, that caught fire on June 12. Lal, an…

In October 2021, an eight-storeyed building in Shimla collapsed after heavy rains triggered a landslide. The building was evacuated well before the collapse. But the tragedy exposed the pressure being…

A 2020 block-wise groundwater resources assessment by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) found that most of the districts in Punjab had over-exploited the groundwater levels. In some districts, the…

India’s growing energy requirements have made Kinnaur a major hub of hydro projects in Himachal Pradesh, particularly over the past two to three decades. As a result, there has been…

The capital city Delhi’s giant garbage mountains often come into the limelight, reflecting India’s poor waste management situation. But a similar scene, not too far away from the capital, in Chandigarh,…

Punjab’s former princely state, Faridkot has over a thousand jamun and mango trees that are very old and produce fruits every summer that are a feast for birds. But birds…

India is the world’s largest user of groundwater with over 80% of the rural and urban domestic water supplies met by available groundwater. But each year the water table keeps…

A veterinary pain killer drug, nimesulide, has been causing the death of vultures in India, finds a new study published in the latest edition of the international scientific journal, Environmental Science…

In July 2017, the Haryana government had declared a 100-acre pond site at village Thana in its Kurukshetra district as the state’s first community reserve site, to conserve its rich…

The Sukhna Wildlife sanctuary, home to unique flora and fauna, on the outskirts of Chandigarh, remains unprotected as Punjab and Haryana, in which part of the sanctuary lies, delay the…

Madan Lal, a farmer from Bagtheru village in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district, was hoping for a good return this year for his wheat crop sown last December. But with scanty…

Two shades of river water passing through Ludhiana’s Manewal village explain it all. It is at this village where the Sutlej river, which originates in Tibet before it enters Punjab…

Till recently, the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) was only making wild guesses about the population status of the snow leopard, the state animal of HP. After three years,…