Solar mini-grids fuel women-led enterprises in Jharkhand’s Gumla district
Birsuni Oraon is a tribal woman in her 50s, living in Guniya village in the Gumla district of Jharkhand. Until a few months ago, she would usually be occupied with…
Mongabay series: Environment and Her
From environment heroes to women-centric solutions for environmental problems, our stories in this series explore how the environment impacts women uniquely. What are these challenges and are women equipped to handle them?
A decade on, India’s first solar park has many promises left to fulfil
“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…
India’s women and children highly vulnerable to climate change yet missing in climate policies
As the number of vagaries of climate extremes increases, so has the disproportionate burden on women and children, finds growing evidence. Policies, however, are yet to catch up and reflect…
Gond women take charge of water and farming in their village
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…
Women farmers of Odisha navigate impacts of extreme weather events while pushing for recognition
Saraju Nayak is a woman farmer based at Jirabadi village under the Bhanjnagar Block of disaster-prone Ganjam district in Odisha. Her family owns around 10 acres of land in the…
Small steps are making energy sector more inclusive for women
Thirty-one-year-old Nagarathna gingerly maneuvers a trolley-like contraption across the dairy shed with solar panel fixtures gleaming in the sun. The contraption – a solar-powered milking machine – saves Nagarathna, a…
Women and feminist groups demand gender equality and inclusion of diverse voices at COP26
“Two degrees is a death sentence for island nations…We've come here to say – try harder!” said the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, making one of the most…
[Interview] The glass ceiling has been shattered, says ZSI’s first woman director
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…
How Sarmoli became a poster child of ecotourism in Uttarakhand
"पहाड़ का पानी और पहाड़ की जवानी पहाड़ में नहीं रुकती " (the water of the mountains and the youth living in the mountains, never stay in mountains). This local…
Women from Kerala weave a solution to the region’s climate woes
Idukki district gets its name from the Malayalam word idukku, which means gorge. Beautiful narrow gorges run across this hilly tourist destination in Kerala in south India. But the district…
Increased farm work negatively impacts women’s nutrition: study
When women put in extra hours on farms in peak seasons of sowing, transplanting, and harvesting, it may impact their food preparation time and reduce nutrient intake, a study finds.…
Study finds some UN SDGs could damage forests, some others may be beneficial
Progress towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets, relating to energy and infrastructure, has the potential to be the most damaging to the world's forest ecosystems, even…
The woman who breaks stereotypes while rescuing wildlife in Kashmir
In the last week of December 2020, a video of a leopard scaling fences and roaming the streets in the Bagh-e-Mehtab locality near Srinagar, startled people in Kashmir valley. It…
Odisha forest officer gets UN Award for environment enforcement, gender leadership
Sasmita Lenka’s journey in environment enforcement – cracking down on pangolin trafficking, clearing illegal aquaculture and mitigating human-elephant conflicts – started out with a burning desire to prove herself on…
[Interview] ‘There is so much you can do in the forest service’, says IFS Vanjulavalli Sridhar
With busy doctors as parents, annual visits to wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the Western Ghats punctuated Vanjulavalli Sridhar's childhood, sparking and nurturing her love for forests and wildlife.…
Lack of alternatives force women back to work in stone mines, which are health hazards
“What is the alternative? Where is it? Four of my sons work in the stone mines even as they know they will contract silicosis. But what is the alternative to…
Ignored and invisible: The burden of mining on women
Kusum, 14, and Pushpa, 12, (both names changed) ran away from their home in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh in 2019, as their family didn’t have enough food to survive after losing…
Women revive ponds for water security in Bundelkhand
From being a humble farmer to a confident leader, Ganga Rajput has come a long way. The 30-year-old is a resident of Chaudhary Khera, a village which lies in Madhya…
[Interview] Turning to science to find innovative solutions: plant biologist E. V. Soniya
For E. V. Soniya, a scientist with the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, science, and especially molecular biology, has been a lifelong passion. Her expertise in the basic…
A traditional healer combines ancient wisdom and training for healing and livelihood
When she was a young girl, Sarojini Goyal of the Korba district of Chhattisgarh would often accompany her parents to the nearby forest to collect shoots, leaves, flowers, and fruits…
Special series
Wetland Champions
- [Commentary] India establishes the largest network of Ramsar Sites in South Asia
- [Commentary] Wetland champions: Promise from the grassroots
- The story of Jakkur lake sets an example for inclusive rejuvenation projects
- Welcome to Tsomgo lake: Please don’t litter
Environment And Health
- Sewing their way to a sustainable menstruation
- Continued fluoride contamination of groundwater is a glaring public health issue in central India
- In a Himachal village, people accuse a waste management plant for contaminating water
- [Commentary] Worsening water quality in Ganga’s lower stretches and what it means for us
Almost Famous Species
- From a life among royals, to fighting for survival
- What do bees see? Developing urban gardens to attract pollinators
- [Interview] Whitley Award winner from Nepal emphasises on crossborder collaboration to protect the red panda
- [Interview] Priyan Perera: Shining a light on the little-studied Indian pangolins in Sri Lanka
India's Iconic Landscapes
- [Commentary] Is expansion of aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans an ecological threat or a pathway to sustainable development?
- One year of Similipal forest fire: The hits and misses
- Grasses spur mangroves to grow in an erosion-riddled Sundarbans patch
- Scientists raise caution as mangroves erode faster along the Bengal coastline
Beyond Protected Areas
- Tiger movements between India and Nepal become increasingly restricted, even as numbers rise
- Failure to cut GHG emissions is putting species conservation in eastern Himalayas at risk
- [Commentary] Connecting corridors for tigers in Central India
- Trafficked kangaroos rescued in north Bengal en route to Indore turn the spotlight on Indian zoos
Conserving Agro-biodiversity
- Farmers fear low fruit production as Kashmir records decline in precipitation
- Scientists sequence chickpea genome which could inform crop improvement efforts
- [Video Explainer] What is the significance of the Biological Diversity Amendment Bill and why did it face opposition?
- Tackling agrobiodiversity loss in Odisha’s Similipal protected area
