Agroforestry, the amalgamation of agriculture and forestry within the same land area, may seem straightforward, yet its intricacies often require significant scientific intervention to optimise outcomes. Traditional methods for evaluating,…
Residents of over 15 villages in the West Singhbum district of Jharkhand have been consuming poor quality drinking water from traditional chuas or shallow pits. These pits, about five feet deep,…
The Supreme Court, on February 19, directed the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to revert to an older definition of forests whose protections were more “broad…
Forests are considered the most effective and abundantly available carbon sinks, capable of storing and sequestering millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A new study from India…
Trees outside recorded forest areas, present remarkable environmental benefits and economic opportunities in India. According to the Forest Survey of India’s India State of Forests Report (ISFR) 2021, these Trees…
In 2009, with hopes to curb the spread of the vibrant flowering shrub lantana (Lantana camara), one of the world’s worst invasive species, the NGO Shola Trust started a long…
On the bank of the horseshoe-shaped Safrai river in the Chala village of Assam’s Charaideo district, stands a lush evergreen forest of over 680 hectares. Nearby, the rectangular shaped structure…
When her mother-in-law started taking her along on forest patrols, Pramila Pradhan, 51, began embracing thengapalli, a form of forest stewardship. In Kodalpalli, Odisha, thenga means stick, and palli means…
The Dachigam National Park in Kashmir, surrounded by the lush Zabarwan mountains, stands out with its unique and diverse landscape. The protected area is an important conservation reserve serving as…
The latest amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, have been widely criticised for diluting the legal safeguards applicable to forest lands. Incidentally, this coincides with the union government’s ascendant…
What does a forest mean to the forest-dwelling adivasi communities in India? Do they see forest ecosystems the way those outside the forest see it? How much of their interpretation…
The Tree Authority, Delhi, is planning to introduce a tree adoption policy that will facilitate interested individuals, corporations and institutions to adopt, maintain and preserve trees in the capital. Meanwhile,…
While on patrol in Ladakh's Hanle village, in 2002, Khenrab Phuntsog, now a 45-year-old wildlife guard with the Ladakh forest department, spotted a cat-like creature descending the hillside. "When I…
Extracting oil and gas from reserves in forests no longer requires project developers to obtain forest clearance, as long as the digging process happens outside forest areas, new government regulation…
A majority of bird species in India are on the decline – an alarming indication of biodiversity loss and anthropogenic pressures on the environment, a new report assessing bird diversity…
"Rainfed agriculture in India is a risky enterprise, owing to uncertainties in rainfall,” reads a World Bank article published in February 2023. More than half of India's net sown area…
Just days before the Lok Sabha passed the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 — with little heed paid to the genuine concerns raised about its provisions by ecologists, bureaucrats, tribal…
India is now home to at least 3,682 tigers – a new record that surpasses earlier estimates, according to the latest government data. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate…
The commercial value of products coming from rarer wildlife species has increased because of their growing demand among the middle class across Asia. The profitability of wildlife trade is high…
“We are independent from Lantana’s fury,” beams Basant Jharia, a local community member in Central India, a region overwhelmed by the spread of the invasive Lantana plants. Atop a mound…