On the edge of the National Highway 31 in Assam, where floodwater had completely submerged the paddy fields, 43-year-old Rahisuddin was waiting with his wife and five children. Rahisuddin, a…
A recent study reveals that unsustainable urbanisation is driving intense groundwater depletion in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. As the city’s population continues to rise (62% from 2001 to 2020), the immense…
Water in India has always been perceived from a lens of public good rather than an economic commodity. A sense of ownership is missing among users as they abstract water…
Black kites have a vantage view of Indian cities. The ubiquitous bird has adjusted to urban areas and lives close to humans. The sight of these birds of prey occupying Delhi’s…
The mid-morning ambience in the wild patch of ground beside my home is consumed with the ecstatic hum of many busy bees. And while news of their staggering contribution to…
This summer it will be thirty years since the Rio Earth Summit. Unlike the earlier decadal anniversaries, this year the United Nations is not celebrating an event to mark the…
Urban heat islands or UHIs are metropolitan areas that are significantly warmer than the surrounding rural areas. The occurrence of a UHI was recorded as early as 1810 by Luke…
In June 2020, 20-year-old Arnav Gandhe was on a birding visit to Pune’s Mahatma hill, an offshoot of the biodiverse Western Ghats. He was about to wrap up for the…
Leaving Panaji, Goa's capital city, for the airport, one drives past a large swathe of lifeless bare trees standing in a shallow black water swamp. This was once a verdant…
India faces a growing risk of one-two punches of extreme events (or compound extremes), such as chances of high heat and heavy rain occurring together or within a week, a…
About three years ago, the silence of a quiet evening was broken for Dinesh Das as an adult male wild elephant entered the courtyard of his tin-roofed house in Rani,…
In the mountainous district of Wayanad in Kerala, the Meenangadi grama panchayat has launched a process for turning their area carbon neutral. The measures, planned and implemented by the local…
“Sun’s out, snakes out!” exclaimed Shuayb Ahmed, and Yatin Kalki as they jumped to action. Ahmed, an independent snake rescuer, had received a frantic call from a woman who spotted…
The year 2021 was one of swinging national sentiment in India. The year started with a misplaced optimism that India had overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, even while many other countries…
Rooftop solar – where solar panels are placed on top of buildings – is an important aspect of India's clean energy journey. India has set a target of 500 gigawatts…
Indian cities have faced many environmental challenges this year, including extreme weather events. The recent rains in Chennai, have demonstrated that cities need to invest more time and money to…
Piyush Ranjan Rout is an urban planner based in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the eastern Indian coastal state of Odisha. He had installed a 1kW off-grid solar panel on…
There are heavy rains in the south Indian city of Chennai and the metropolis has flooded, bringing back memories of the of December 2015 floods. Mongabay-India talked with Jayshree Vencatesan,…
Bengaluru, the fourth most populous metropolitan city in India, is a favoured market for real estate developers. This has, consequently, led to concerns about the city's environmental health. Several studies…
Harasa Bhoi, in her early 40s, is a vegetable seller in Odisha’s religious town of Puri. She owns a small shack on the Grand Road, locally called the ‘Bada Danda,’…
