Coexisting with an increasing number of Asiatic lions
India’s lion census, supposed to be conducted in the first week of May, has been deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is little doubt that the number of…
Conservation biologists navigate the new normal
Conservation biologists are coming to terms with a new normal in the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with disrupted food supply for animals, postponed fieldwork and training, and the possibility…
Government pushes for post facto environment clearances while apex court disapproves
Expressing disapproval against industrial projects operating without environment clearances, a Supreme Court order states that allowing such a practice would be detrimental to the environment. While the order was in…
Women act to make slums climate-resilient, one house at a time
Farida Sheikh remembers her house in the slums in Ahmedabad feeling like a furnace, where summer temperatures have reached up to 50 degrees Celsius. But for the last four years,…
Kuno, India’s second home for the Asiatic lion, is ready
“Still waiting for new beginning”. The words in bold, white, are painted alongside a mural of a lion and lioness, on a sign near the forest guest house in Palpur…
Gujarat pilots emissions trading programme to tackle air pollution
The western state of Gujarat has launched the world’s first trading programme for particulate air pollution. The pilot, launched on World Environment Day in June this year, replicates a market-based…
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…
The invisible victims of drought-hit Kutch
Nature does not discriminate. In the drought-hit Kutch, all living beings — man, animal, plants — are struggling to cope with its merciless onslaught. A large population of this semi-arid…
Vhali Watcher: An app to set whale sharks free
For fisherfolk from Gujarat, finding a whale shark tangled in their nets is an unwelcome sight. They can’t legally harvest the protected species, yet the world’s biggest fish can wreak…
March of industrialisation tramples Kutch’s coastal ecology
“Like fish trapped in a net,” Jam Ismael Ali smiled at the irony of the simile drawn to explain his own situation. One among the few remaining Pagadia fishermen in…
