When Binaya Bhusan Jena, a professor at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar city, first looked around campus, all he could spot were concrete academic buildings.…
A recent study reveals that unsustainable urbanisation is driving intense groundwater depletion in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. As the city’s population continues to rise (62% from 2001 to 2020), the immense…
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…
Water in India has always been perceived from a lens of public good rather than an economic commodity. A sense of ownership is missing among users as they abstract water…
Stephen Midzi, the biodiversity conservation manager of South Africa’s iconic Kruger National Park, thinks it is a good thing to allow rivers to be what rivers should be. Midzi is…
Madhya Pradesh's Manpur town near Pithampur, a Special Economic Zone with almost 50 industrial units, is facing water contamination. The locals assert that the chemical debris from Pithampur is tossed…
The history of Haryana’s 7,356 villages is as old as its ponds and wells. It is said that people settled wherever they found water storage capacity for human and cattle…
“Vizhinjam was once known as the harbour of pro-creation,” Father Michael, parish priest of Lady of Good Voyage Church in Vizhinjam, Kerala, told Mongabay-India. But today, the reality is different.…
Sonu Kalkal, a farmer living in Imlota village in Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana, used to cultivate his own land and harvest bumper crops. The 42-year-old has now turned landless.…
Satyanarayan Patel, a 60-year-old farmer, hails from Bijanwada village of Narmadapuram (Hoshangabad) district in Madhya Pradesh. His house is located on the banks of the Pasa river, a tributary of…
Leaving Panaji, Goa's capital city, for the airport, one drives past a large swathe of lifeless bare trees standing in a shallow black water swamp. This was once a verdant…
“You should come here during the monsoon to see how big our gauchar (grazing land) was,” reminisces Nanu Rabari, 60, as she breaks pods of Prosopis juliflora, called gando bawal…
The government of India is planning an ambitious programme for the rejuvenation of 13 major Indian rivers through forestry interventions at a cost of nearly Rs. 19,300 crores (Rs. 193…
Tulsa Bai is a 60-year-old woman from the Dumerpani village in the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. She uses a stick to move from one place to another. It's not just…
Located in Amarpur block of district Dindori in Madhya Pradesh, Lalpur village is widely divided into two hamlets, Banwasi Tola and Muqaddam Tola. While Banwasi Tola depends on poultry as…
In a recent study, marine biologists forewarn a decline in sea snake populations at the Malvan coast, a major landing port in southern Maharashtra. The authors flag that mechanised vessels are…
As a young boy growing up in Saharjhuri village located in the Ajodhya hills in West Bengal’s Purulia district, Suresh Kisku (name changed on request) did not dare venture into…
To meet the suite of climate challenges, while also producing food and energy in an environmentally and socially sustainable way, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is becoming popular around the globe. CSA…
Himachal Pradesh, a state that has five important perennial rivers fed particularly by glaciers, has witnessed a decline in snowfall over the past year. The area under snow cover in…
Around 20 years ago, Karmo Devi, a resident of Majra village in Himachal Pradesh’s largest industrial area, Nalagarh, dug a well for drinking water. For 20 consecutive years, she and…
