On a cold winter morning in late 2009, Dilip Konwar, a sprightly man in his late forties, scrambled up a bamboo ladder and peeked into the dark insides under the…
While the world as we know it has changed, following the coronavirus pandemic, what hasn’t changed is starting the new year with hope and optimism. Even as we approach 2022…
Getting things right with mangroves, ecosystems that feature on the global climate agenda for their carbon storage capacity, could set the stage for effective climate action and biodiversity protection in…
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…
Located in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, the 100 square kilometre Sessa Orchid Sanctuary is home to more than 200 species of orchids including several endemic and rare…
Traditional healer Janakiamma (60) belongs to the Kurumba community. An indigenous community in south India, Kurumba is listed by the government of India as one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal…
“Lakes are like the organs and rajakaluvae, or the storm water drains that connect them, are like nerves. Organs will not survive without the nerves,” says Captain Santhosh Kumar, an…
As the blazing rays of the overhead sun signals noon, Jayanta Patra, a farmer in his 60s from Saratchandrapur village in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, wraps up work in his four-acre…
A new study that examined the plant diversity and carbon stock of 39-year-old human created forest, Molai Kathoni in Assam, and a natural forest of comparable age, shows that a…
Sukmani Nag, a resident of Dhodrepal’s Patelpara hamlet in the Bastar district of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, oozes confidence as she speaks about solar-powered irrigation, at a meeting…
A "whole-farm" approach or integrated farming systems that supplement traditional crops with farming vegetables, fruits, poultry or fish is re-emerging as a nature-based solution to boosting productivity in climate-stressed regions.…
All the children and men in a village taking a day off once a year to go fishing together may sound like a tale from bygone days, but this Kashmir…
In the village of Nongtraw in Meghalaya, one of the world's wettest region, honey is quite sought after by the Khasi indigenous community who go to the forest to collect…
Most of the sandy beaches and bays of Goa, India’s smallest state, are dominated by tourism and fishing. Yet in the low tide pools along the a 100 km long…
In early 2002, Moirangthem Loiya Ngamba from the Meitei community in Manipur, began growing plants on the Maru Langol hill range nestled in the northern part of the Imphal valley.…
“Powerbaaz”. “Main boss”. No, these descriptions don’t refer to any power-hungry politician or underworld don. It’s how the indigenous Warli people of Maharashtra see their animal god, the Waghoba. The…
Tigers once roamed the lands from Turkey in the west to the Amur river basin in the east, across south and southeast Asia all the way to the island of…
Born into a marginalised family in 1937 in Kerala, his umbilical cord looked almost like a bloated seed of a common mangrove tree. So, his parents who worked as farm…
Senior Zoological Survey of India scientist Dhriti Banerjee has straddled two different worlds of research — physiology of drug abuse and working on the use of insects in forensic investigations…
Long before global warming became a topic of hot discourse worldwide, certain traditional practices of humans, like homegardens, have served as natural ways to maintain environmental equilibrium. Homegardens are defined…