N. S. Jodha’s pioneering work on Commons in 1986 alerted us to the poor’s dependency on these resources. When the commons degrade, the poor suffers the most. However, we knew…
“Adani company go back,” residents of Jharkhand’s Gondalpura declared in a public hearing organised on July 15, 2022, by the Hazaribagh District Collector’s office to discuss issues surrounding impending land…
Gujarat’s diverse geographical landscapes are home to several indigenous communities pursuing traditional occupations. The hilly terrain in the state’s eastern, northern and southern belts comprise significant tribal populations. The western…
Chana Rana Rabari picks up a wooden staff as he enters the forest. He requires it to balance while crossing the undulating terrain and thorny vegetation in the jungle. “This…
If India can reduce its air pollution problem, it will not only improve the performance of its solar power projects and accelerate India’s clean energy transition but would also result…
Renewable energy projects require vast tracts of one limited resource - land. The second episode of Mongabay-India’s podcast series, GigaWhat, explores the challenges of land conflicts and renewable energy projects.…
Land is unarguably at the heart of India’s energy transition, but a clear policy for scientific closure and repurposing of land involved in coal mining and power projects can be…
This is the first article in a two-part series on the impact of the solar park in Pavagada, Karnataka that is experimenting with a new model of leasing land from…
If India were to implement a net-zero target by 2050, an area of at least about 65,000 square kilometres - equivalent to about half the size of the Indian state…
The record low tariff achieved by renewable energy projects in India, over the last few years, has been fuelling the clean energy sector in the country, but what it may…
There is no debate that renewable energy projects, when implemented suitably, are more environment-friendly and sustainable than fossil fuel-based projects. But if large renewable energy projects are the way forward,…
Kusum, 14, and Pushpa, 12, (both names changed) ran away from their home in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh in 2019, as their family didn’t have enough food to survive after losing…
The cost of relocating tribal people, forest dwellers and pastoral communities for biodiversity conservation in India, is projected to be over a thousand times more than the cost of community-based…
In the past few months, some videos that showed the demolition of houses of tribal people in south Kashmir’s forests were widely circulated and created fear among nomadic families who…
The Assam government approved the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve’s expansion, earlier this year, adding 30 square kilometres to the largest habitat of the one-horned rhinoceros in the world…
A study of Jharkhand’s major coal mining district, Ramgarh, shows that mining activities are shrinking and about 50 percent of mines in the region are either “closed down” or temporarily…
Chhendipada area in Angul district of Odisha is marked by large patches of green cover comprising forests of large tree species like Sal and others. The forest department has also…
One of India's most important rainforests, the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam has become a battleground for communities and cheap coal mined from the region. The foothills of Dehing…
“Yeh toh bhagwan ki marzi hai, sahab. Pichhle janam ke kuch paap honge jo iss janam main saamne aa rahe hain (It’s all god’s will. Maybe we had sinned in…
Chandrasekhar Shirodkar, 48, returned from Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s. When he came back to Maem, a village in the north-eastern mining belt of India’s western state Goa, he…
