Pesticides to kill locusts harm ecosystems, signature fauna
The danger of locust swarms has passed for now. For five months from March 2020, hundreds of field teams were deployed in India and Pakistan to kill locusts that swarmed…
Sundarbans endangered as per IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems framework, cautious optimism advised
The Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem in India is evaluated as ‘endangered’ by a global team of researchers using the IUCN's Red List of Ecosystems framework. The clearing of mangroves dating back…
Present versus past: Environmental threats can destroy Edakkal caves and their Stone Age carvings
Some 126 years after British police officer Fred Fawcett’s chance discovery of the famous Edakkal Caves and their ancient rock carvings in Wayanad district of Kerala, the mountain which houses…
Conserving high elevation shola-grasslands crucial for the endemic Nilgiri pipit
If it's bright-hued birds you prefer watching, you'd barely look at a Nilgiri pipit twice. Moreover, the bird can be difficult to spot: the drab-coloured tones on its small, streaked…
How Rhizophora mangroves on Car Nicobar islands fought back a rapid sea-level rise in 2004 tsunami
In the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake-tsunami, as land sank and the sea suddenly rose at Car Nicobar Island, mangroves facing the land were unable to survive. But the abrupt disturbance did…
Retrofitting coal power plants with carbon capture may lead to increased water stress
Addition of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to reduce emissions could stress water resources in a vast proportion of coal-fired power plants in India that are already exposed to…
Deadly landslides are becoming Kerala’s new reality every monsoon
P. Mayilswami and his brother Ganeshan, members of an Eco-Development Committee (EDC) in Kerala, had reasons to feel elated in June this year. The brothers were engaged in the conservation…
[Commentary] Why the plane could, yet the country can’t, run on biofuel?
In August 2018, SpiceJet airline made history in the Indian transportation sector. A journey of about 285 kilometres from Dehradun (in Uttarakhand) to New Delhi was completed with a fuel…
Deep below the surface, boreholes offer clues to past warming in the Western Ghats
Mapping changes in temperature with depth in boreholes drilled in Maharashtra’s Koyna region has thrown light on past climate warming in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats. The results detailed in a…
Low fish catch along India’s western coast hints at impacts of climate change
Fish catch from the western coast of India has declined, according to the Marine Fish Landings Report 2019 by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI). Climate scientists attribute this…
