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…
Increasing dry season fires in Kerala spotlight debate around man-made fires
When summer strengthens, it brings with it dry spells and the season of forest fires. Since January 2019, a number of fire incidents have been reported from Kerala. In the…
Fixing agriculture a decade after cyclone Aila: A farmer recollects
It has been a decade since Cyclone Aila ravaged the Bay of Bengal. But paddy farmer Tapan Mondal, is wary of growing legumes and watermelon in the still-recovering soil of…
Traditional knowledge to the rescue in water scarcity-hit Assam
Sometimes, particularly during monsoons, the day starts around 4 a.m., earlier than usual, for Rati Ranjan Mondal in Assam’s Nagrijuli village on the Indo-Bhutan border. Mondal wakes up, after a…
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…
Politics muddies waters in parched Bundelkhand
It is just the beginning of summer. The mercury in Lalitpur — one of the drought-prone districts of Bundelkhand, a region divided between the two states of Uttar Pradesh (UP)…
People in this Mumbai slum barely make it to age 40
Manasi Dighe (name changed) rises before the sun, changes into a sari, plaits her thinning hair, and sets out. At the crack of dawn, her eyes begin searching the road,…
[Video] How ‘green’ are India’s elections?
India has been trying to make the ongoing national elections more environment-friendly by cutting down on the amount of single-use plastics. However, the election campaigns have painted most roads with…
[Photos] Zooming into the environmental problems of a growing Chennai
Since the 2014 national elections, the capital city of Tamil Nadu has witnessed major environmental calamities, from the disastrous floods of December 2015 to the giant oil spill outside Kamarajar…
[Commentary] Looking beyond the Chennai city, at the Chennai watershed
It is an era of rapid urban expansion that ignores sustainable urban planning principles until disaster strikes. The city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu is no exception to this rule.…
