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…
Will agriculture distress in Saurashtra benefit the opposition?
Caught between the two mainstream parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress, the farmers of Saurashtra are an angry lot this election season. They are waiting for…
Tiger dead: The big cat that walked from MP to Gujarat dies mysteriously
In the second week of February 2019, the presence of a tiger was confirmed in the Mahisagar area of Gujarat but the happiness was short lived as the big cat…
Draft rules for offshore wind farms: Environmental damage could lead to cancellation of clearance
An offshore wind energy project, if found causing environmental damage to marine ecology, could be cancelled, as proposed in the draft offshore wind energy lease rules, 2019 by the Indian…
Bullet train on track with coastal and wildlife clearance
Land acquisition for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, the bullet train, is far from over, but just ahead of India’s parliamentary elections the project has now received the Coastal Regulation…
Making money while the sun shines: How farmers in this Gujarat village use and sell clean energy
Until three years ago, farmers in Dhundi, a village in Gujarat’s Kheda district south-east of the state’s capital city Gandhinagar, knew only one way of mechanical irrigation in their farms…
Swimming camels, mangrove islands of Kutch face mounting challenges
In the land of contrasts that Kutch is, winter is the lean feeding season for its unique breed of Kharai camels. These camels, unlike the kind most of us are…
