Punjab enforced the Right To Walk, as per Article 21 of the Indian constitution, in May this year, following a 2010 petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court…
This is the third story in a three-part series, where Mongabay-India examines the reasons for stubble burning in central India, the possible solutions to end stubble burning and also analyses…
An early November evening in Punjab's Sangrur district in 2022 was different compared to the last few years. The sky was clear; there was no chill in the air, and…
Despite years of discussions to phase out paddy in Punjab, owing to its impact on groundwater, latest data shows that the paddy crop area still dominates agriculture in the state.…
Sanjeev Nagpal owns one of the oldest biogas plants in Chandigarh, where his company converts paddy straw to biogas. He uses this gas to produce power that he sells to…
Even as authorities claim that they are all set to deal with what is now an annual public health crisis, stubble burning in the northern states of India is back…
Buddha Dariya, in Punjab’s Ludhiana city, was once a clear stream of water, flowing into one of the largest rivers of the state, the Sutlej. Today, it is a stream…
A 2020 block-wise groundwater resources assessment by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) found that most of the districts in Punjab had over-exploited the groundwater levels. In some districts, the…
Hardeep Kaur, 36, and her husband Chamkaur Singh, 39, owned two acres of agricultural land in the Bathinda district of Punjab, a northern Indian state. With a fierce heatwave in…
Only a smidge of Punjab’s geographical area is forested, a state in north India’s wheat-producing belt. Nurtured by people’s beliefs in these small forest patches are sacred groves –forest fragments…
The northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana garner a lot of attention during the paddy harvesting season every year, starting in October. The short window between the harvesting of…
Punjab’s former princely state, Faridkot has over a thousand jamun and mango trees that are very old and produce fruits every summer that are a feast for birds. But birds…
Seeking to double India’s export earnings from fisheries, the Indian government plans to increase fish production from 137.58 lakh metric tons in 2018-19 to 220 lakh metric tons by 2024-25,…
With Chandigarh's growing reputation as nature’s paradise, every aspect of this man-made creation, originally spread over 47 blocks of 246 acres each, vindicates the visionary thinking of the early planners.…
The Sukhna Wildlife sanctuary, home to unique flora and fauna, on the outskirts of Chandigarh, remains unprotected as Punjab and Haryana, in which part of the sanctuary lies, delay the…
Two shades of river water passing through Ludhiana’s Manewal village explain it all. It is at this village where the Sutlej river, which originates in Tibet before it enters Punjab…
Over half a century after they were considered extinct in Punjab, the critically endangered long-snouted gharials have bounced back to life in the northern state, thanks to a reintroduction programme,…
Stubble burning in Punjab has annually been cited as the main contributor to the smog in Delhi and parts of northern India in pre-winter months. Delhi’s air quality levels in…
The Punjab cabinet has approved an industrial park near the Mattewara forest range and Sutlej River in the Ludhiana district. The approval has triggered protests against the project, while the government…
In October 2019, a few months into her Ph.D. at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Garima Thapliyal set out on a field survey to Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.…