When India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget in February 2023, she referred to millets as "shri anna" or the best of all grains. Her rebranding of millets…
The implementation of nature-based solutions, or NbS — a hotly debated concept that has gained traction in recent years — is seen by many policymakers as a potential means for…
Mass flowering is an enchanting phenomenon that occurs across the world. In India, the neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) bloom, where swathes of the landscape become carpeted in flowers, is a well-known…
“Policymakers and planners think that open lands hardly contribute anything and can be used for some development pathway,” said Vivek Saxena, the CEO of Haryana State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management…
Ahead of the 27th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to be held in Cairo, Egypt, in November 2022, there are growing demands for a Loss and Damage (L&D) Finance…
Greenwashing refers to "the practice of making products, activities, or policies seem more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than they actually are," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of…
Who can forget the image of Tarzan swinging from tree to tree, crossing streams hanging on woody vines? Tarzan's natural bridges and ladders in the forest are a category of…
Biodiversity finance is the practice of raising capital and managing funds for biodiversity conservation. It comes under the umbrella topic of conservation finance, which aims to financially support the conservation…
In April 2022, several images of dead fish floating in the Banganga tank, located in Mumbai’s Malabar hill area, circulated on news sites and social media platforms. Clean up efforts…
Fossil fuels kickstarted the industrial age for humanity. However, humans now face the possibility of running out of these fuels by the end of this century. So, where do industries that…
The summer of 2022 has been particularly harsh all over India, with unrelenting heat spells signalling evolving climatic systems. With March being declared as the hottest in the India Meteorological…
As the world is struggling to combat climate change, one idea – planting trees – seems to be taking hold as a panacea for curing the ills of pollution, soaring…
Forest fires, also called wildfires and bush or vegetation fires, are described as uncontrolled, often widespread burning of plants in forests, grasslands, brushland, and tundra. These fires can be of…
Insects act in coordination with natural light regimes and are sensitive to changes in light intensity, wavelengths, sources and other factors. Nocturnal insects perform various activities such as foraging, reacting…
Carbon sinks are places and/or products that sequester and store carbon as organic or inorganic compounds for different periods of time. Essentially, anything that absorbs more carbon than it emits…
Wildlife trafficking, which is the illegal trade of wild animals and plants, either as dead or live specimens, or their parts, has a huge negative effect on the world’s environments,…
Tropical cyclones are fairly common weather systems, clocking a global average of around 80 storms annually. However, with rising global temperatures and subsequent increase in sea surface temperatures, the…
Every year, around the first week of June, a vast expanse of roiling grey clouds advances from the Arabian sea and makes landfall in Kerala to the tune of rumbling…
In the 1920s, a British economist, Arthur Pigou, highlighted the social benefits of making industries pay for the costs of the pollution they caused. In time, this concept was taken…
The Indian summer monsoon is a vast weather event that is crucial to the 1.39 billion people that live in India, as most of the rainfall (70-90%) that the country…
