Amid concerns over a dip in mango production this year due to climate change and pest woes, a mango database developed by Indian scientists aims to help plant breeders select…
In a maiden effort, researchers have mapped the plant diversity of the Sikkim Himalayas on the basis of geography and climate data to create a ‘geodiversity index’ that can serve…
A Gujarat-based scientist duo from the Bapalal Vaidya Botanical Research Centre of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, have found a very small fern— just about the size of a…
In 1980, the social forestry wing of the Assam state forest department in northeastern India launched an experimental programme that aimed to measure how well tree cover could protect against…
Ashish Kothari, activist from Kalpavriksh in Pune, has co-edited with K.J. Joy a large and impressive tome called Alternative Futures: India Unshackled (Authors Upfront, 2017). They boldly attempt to predict…
A diet that moves away from white, polished rice to include coarse grains and wheat could help Indians tackle micronutrient deficiencies affordably and cut down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated…
Around mid-December last year (2017), dense clumps of Indian thorny bamboo (Bambusa bambos), burst into flower simultaneously across several square km of the Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary, close to the Odisha…
As the growing demand for natural rubber transforms Southeast Asia’s landscapes, scientists in India have warned against the unregulated expansion of rubber monocultures in seven northeastern states that together make…
Far removed from the mainland, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal support and nurture over a thousand species of animals that are exclusive to this part…
Almost smack in the centre of the Palani hill range that forms the eastern spur of the Western Ghats, lies the hill station of Kodaikanal. This once sleepy idyllic getaway…
Environmentalists are divided over the recent decision of the Maharashtra State Wildlife Board, which is presided over by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, to permit a geo-technical survey for two 11-km-long…
There is one common element that connects pacemakers for the human heart, coins, solar power plants and cooking appliances. All of them use nickel or its alloy as a primary…
Today we formally launch Mongabay-India, the India-specific portal of the global environmental news platform Mongabay.com. This news portal will look at India’s development through the prism of conservation and environment.…
The Great Nicobar Island is located further south than Kanyakumari and is closer to Myanmar and Sumatra than to the Indian mainland. Over millennia of evolution and isolation, the island…
If there is one material that finds immense use in our indoor and outdoor furnishings, besides wood, it is the cane. Sourced from a tall, climbing palm called the rattan,…
For 23 year old Priya Sunderlal Mawaskar, living near Maharashtra’s Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR), ramuniya has just been a stubborn, wild weed, strewn with orange, purple and white inflorescence and…
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has commended Sikkim’s Khangchendzonga National Park with a “good” conservation outlook for the year 2017 in its World Heritage Outlook 2 report.…
Naturalists in India have rediscovered a rare flowering plant — Arisaema translucens — after nearly 80 years. Botanist Edward Barnes first collected this plant in 1932 from the Nilgiri mountains in southern India. The plant,…