Plunder of the Aravallis risks lives in north India
How should a country, blessed with mountain ranges like the Aravallis that are over two billion years old, treat them? Spread across four states, the 692-km-long Aravalli range is key…
Birds suffer ‘collateral damage’ as horticulture booms in Kutch
Acres after acres of land, developed into fruit orchards of different kinds, break the wiry brown monotony of the Kutch landscape in Gujarat. This ‘transformation’ of the semi-arid land has…
Latest draft notification is another step in the ongoing journey to protect the Western Ghats
After being criticised by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for failing to finalise the ecologically sensitive area (ESA) in the Western Ghats region, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate…
India’s policy flip flop on the lion and cheetah
It is a tale of two large carnivores. While authorities have dragged their feet over finding another home for the lion to ensure its survival in case of unseen dangers,…
The bullet train may trigger social conflict and have significant environmental cost
The much-publicised “bullet train” is estimated to speed through the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor in about two hours. But its development is cutting through decades of work by Mother Nature and its…
Turtles lose to coastal projects in Gujarat and Odisha
The race was between the slow-moving turtles and the industrial projects for India’s fast developing economy – the latter won. The expert panels of the Indian government’s Ministry of Environment,…
Will resettlement issues cause a bumpy ride for the bullet train project?
“I was not born when my family members were displaced from their ancestral land. Till date we have not got what all was promised to us. Now they want to…
Less firewood at home means better health for the family
While air pollution in metropolitan cities like Delhi has hogged the headlines over the past few years, we don’t know much about how our emissions from various activities are affecting…
A ‘normal’ monsoon with droughts and floods?
Two months of the annual southwest monsoon are over, with another two to go. As against a normal rainfall of 452.8 millimetres (mm), the country has received 426.1 mm rainfall,…
Fracking or food: The oncoming dilemma for water-stressed agricultural areas
Shale oil or gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) could intensify pressure on water resources in some of the shale reservoirs in India that are located in water-stressed and groundwater-depleted areas,…
