With Puri’s green shelterbelt destroyed, human-animal conflicts could increase
At 60, Bairagi Patra does not need a book or a white paper to understand the value of the environment. Patra, a marginal farmer and daily wage earner, who lives…
Mongabay series: Flood and drought
[Commentary] Did the budget miss the bus for building climate resilience for agriculture?
When I was a schoolboy in Kerala, there was an annual calendar event that we hated. It was the date June 1. That was the day on which the schools…
Why the city that never stops comes to a standstill when it rains
When the rain poured down on Mumbai last week, drowning the city in what now seems like an annual affair, it once again brought up the question – why is…
Hope runs dry as groundwater sources in Punjab drop to alarming levels
On the morning of February 21, 2018, Manvir Singh, 32, a farmer from Andana village in Sangrur district of Punjab, left early from home for his farm. When Manju, his…
Chennai water crisis once again exposes the city’s climate vulnerability
It is noon and the scorching heat of Chennai’s sun hits across S. Punitha’s face. She has just filled her first pot for the day from a hand pump in…
The invisible victims of drought-hit Kutch
Nature does not discriminate. In the drought-hit Kutch, all living beings — man, animal, plants — are struggling to cope with its merciless onslaught. A large population of this semi-arid…
[Commentary] Back to the Future: Lessons from Cyclone Fani
On May 3, the coastal state of Odisha in eastern India witnessed Fani, an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’ and the first major cyclone of the 2019 North Indian Ocean cyclone…
[Commentary] In Kerala there was nothing “golden” about this missed opportunity
The city of Chennai and the surrounding areas went through major floods in November-December 2015. The entire state of Kerala went through a similar event in August 2018. Both the…
Indian forests may be able to withstand climate change better than feared
Some glad tidings from the bleak field of climate change science. New research from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, shows that a majority of Indian forests are exceptionally…
Stalagmite chemistry offers clues to northeast India’s rainfall variability
Hidden in interesting and beautiful mineral rock formations inside Meghalaya's caves is potentially powerful information about annual rainfall variability in northeast India. This information could help predict and prepare for…