The members of Mumbai’s fishing community, the Koli community, have found a sustainable answer to their economic woes brought forth by the lockdown. The lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra…
In April, amidst several gloomy developments related to COVID-19, there was one announcement that should have brought cheer to many farmers of Maharashtra, especially non-irrigated areas such as Marathwada and…
On an unusually cold night in October 1964, Jalambaba sat in a cowshed at the edge of Mukpat village, barely two kilometres from the Ajanta caves of yore. Through a…
The eastern Indian state of Odisha is known worldwide for seasonally hosting olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) en masse as they visit the seashore along the Bay of Bengal…
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been characterised by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. The causative virus SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 207,860 cases ever since it was…
Ganeshwadi is the last village of Shirol taluka in Kolhapur district on the border between Maharashtra and Karnataka. Many farmers from Ganeshwadi and other villages in Shirol straddle between the…
A dense and dark green alphonso mango orchard spread over five hectares in Purnagad village along the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, wears a barren look. The usual pinkish-white buds that…
Among the many threatened marine species in the world, shark populations exhibit some of the most worrying trends. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s latest assessment, 139…
The next time you hear something about the Sri Lankan cat snake’s (Boiga ceylonensis) population from India, be skeptical, for it could be a case of mistaken identity, advise researchers…
At a time when election fervour is at its peak in Maharashtra and political parties are sweating it out to lure voters with tall promises, residents of the Manibeli village…
In a relief for green crusaders in India’s commercial capital, Mumbai, the Supreme Court, on October 7, ordered a status quo in the Aarey tree-felling case and directed the Bharatiya…
This October, while India hosts grand celebrations to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, over a million students from over 100 countries across five continents will pay tribute…
In July, when many parts of India were bracing for yet another year of drought, the situation changed dramatically with episodes of extreme rainfall in the latter part of the…
The high noon sun makes it tough to inspect the shrubs and plants in the butterfly park without squinting. Despite the harsh conditions, the Athalye family - Sandeep, his wife,…
Fifty-two-year-old Moreshwar Namdeo Koli is a fisherman whose family has been fishing in the Arabian sea off the Mumbai coast for the past three generations. His is among the 15,000…
As you sip the freshly brewed craft beer, there is nothing to indicate the pale brew is generously infused with bajra, or pearl millet, a grain that has been grown…
An aircraft poised to enter dark clouds – and spray chemicals to produce rain. Sounds magical -- that’s the image often associated with cloud seeding. In reality, it is much…
Fifty-six-year-old Seema Adgaonkar glides through swampy mangroves in ankle-deep muck. The fragrance of Avicennia marina (the grey mangrove), the most widely-spread mangrove species in Mumbai, makes the trail pleasant despite…
When the rain poured down on Mumbai last week, drowning the city in what now seems like an annual affair, it once again brought up the question – why is…
Since it was first detected in a small village in the Karnataka Western Ghats in 1957, the Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) or monkey fever has affected over 9000 people across…
