With Puri’s green shelterbelt destroyed, human-animal conflicts could increase
At 60, Bairagi Patra does not need a book or a white paper to understand the value of the environment. Patra, a marginal farmer and daily wage earner, who lives…
[Commentary] Did the budget miss the bus for building climate resilience for agriculture?
When I was a schoolboy in Kerala, there was an annual calendar event that we hated. It was the date June 1. That was the day on which the schools…
What is preventing the widespread adoption of biopesticides in India?
Biopesticides are yet to take off in a major way in India because of mixed constraints, despite their enormous market potential and the national and state initiatives to promote them…
Kutch’s Wagad or Kala cotton: Back from the (almost) dead
Once upon a time, in the semi-arid plains of Kutch, grew plants that bore soft white tufts of indigenous, Wagad cotton. The cotton’s softness was in contrast to its hardy…
Hope runs dry as groundwater sources in Punjab drop to alarming levels
On the morning of February 21, 2018, Manvir Singh, 32, a farmer from Andana village in Sangrur district of Punjab, left early from home for his farm. When Manju, his…
India’s water commission suggests rewards and punishment to encourage water conservation
A significant part of India is facing water scarcity, while a latest government report holds that India is not a water deficit country but that the scarcity is on account…
[Commentary] Factory farming for eggs impacts India’s environment
India raises approximately 460 million hens annually to produce eggs and is currently the third largest producer of eggs in the world. More than 80 percent of eggs come from…
Lack of alternative livelihood linked to Nagaland tribe’s affinity to shifting cultivation
The lack of alternative livelihood options is reinforcing the attachment of the Konyaks, a Nagaland tribe, to the practice of shifting cultivation (jhum), highlights a new study. This perceived economic…
A floral calendar for bee conservation
Researcher K Lakshmi Rao is habituated to bee stings. And in her quest across India, to understand what whets the appetite of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), she has been at…
Is India doing enough to battle desertification?
Close to one-third of India’s total land area, 29.32 percent, was undergoing land degradation during 2011-2013 and with rising impacts of climate change, the figure could increase in the coming…
