P. Narayanan Unny, the third-generation farm er who rescued a near-extinct Navara rice and built the Navara Eco Farm to revive, organically cultivate and conserve the Indigenous rice variety, died at his ancestral home in Chittur, Palakkad, on December 9, 2025. He was 67.
Unny is widely credited with not only bringing Kerala’s ancient medicinal rice back from the brink of extinction but also in leading efforts to secure its legal identity and market. Under him, the Navara Eco Farm in his hometown grew into a global reference for Navara rice’s conservation and organic cultivation.
In a report tracing Navara’s revival, Navara Rice: A Success Story, Unny recalled his early years of identifying and marketing the grain: “As rice cultivation in Kerala was a losing proposition for the farmers at that time, I made a plan to value-add and focus on cultivating Kerala’s specialty rice — the unique medicinal and health rice — Navara and the Indigenous varieties of Palakkadan Matta rice.”
While Palakkadan Matta remained popular, Navara had all but disappeared into the generic category of “red rice”. That gap in recognition, he wrote, marked the beginning of his “tireless efforts to revive the Indigenous variety and garner international recognition for it.”
Unny came from a lineage of rice specialists in Palakkad, and the 125-year-old family farm Karukamani Kalam, on the banks of river Shokanashini, had been nurtured across three generations. After his father’s passing in the mid-1990s, he took charge of the land and committed himself to conservation.
At the time, Navara cultivation had collapsed because of declining yields, loss of pure seed, and the widespread adoption of high-yielding hybrids. Unny responded with patient seed selection and purification and the multiplication and distribution of clean seed. He also organised farmers, created demonstration plots, and worked closely with research agencies. The Geographical Indication (GI) protection eventually granted to Navara, anchoring it legally to Palakkad, became a turning point in his efforts.
“It was a path breaking effort which almost made me bankrupt. There was no revenue earning from the farm for the first five years when I took up the Navara program. Some of my farmer friends advised me to stop this madness and return to normal farming,” he wrote. Yet he persisted, convinced of Navara’s medicinal value and cultural importance.
Over time, the Navara Eco Farm evolved into more than a cultivation site. It became an educational centre, hosting students, researchers, Ayurvedic practitioners and visiting farmers.
Reflecting on his mission, Unny wrote: “Navara was on the verge of extinction. Unless some real, sustained and focused effort is put in by someone, Navara was going to be a mere history rather than that in real life. Looking into the pros and cons of its not being a profitable venture but having utility in curing various ailments, I finally decided to revive its cultivation and popularisation.”
Banner image: Image courtesy of Navara Eco Farm.
In the Arabian sea well off the coast of Kollam district, Kerala, in March 2024, fishermen spotted a curious bycatch in their nets. It was collected by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Kochi city for a closer look. The specimen was damaged – possibly while dodging a predator – but it still yielded enough evidence for the description of Taningia silasii, a newly discovered giant deep sea squid species.
Published in Marine Biodiversity this year, it is the second species to be formally described from the Taningia genus, after Taningia danae, one of the largest squid species. Morphological and phylogenetic assessments revealed differences in traits such as the shape of the lower beak, cartilaginous structures, gills, from those of T. danae, confirming the distinction between the two species.
The finding was led by study authors Geetha Sasikumar, who primarily studies shellfish, and K.K. Sajikumar who researches cephalopods. CMFRI monitors fisheries catches, coordinating with fishing vessels like trawlers and gill netters, and frequenting coastal landing centres. The specimen that led to the description of T. silasii was collected from trawlers at Sakthikulangara harbour, situated at the confluence of Ashtamudi lake and the Arabian sea.
“Though this specimen was damaged and without several internal organs, it is very rare to capture a specimen of this genus – perhaps because of their mesopelagic (twilight zone) to bathypelagic (midnight zone) habitat, typically 200 to 2,000 metres deep,” said Sasikumar.
Though its stomach contents couldn’t be obtained, the study authors say that T. silasii is likely to be carnivorous, feeding on a diversity of prey like crustaceans and fish. The specimen – estimated to be a subadult – was 41.5 cm long, and weighed around 1.7 kg. Its sex could not be confirmed as various internal organs were missing. However, spermatangia implanted along the inner mantle (which contain the reproductive organs of a squid) suggest it may have been a female caught shortly after mating.
T. silasii was named in tribute to the late E.G. Silas (1928–2018), the former director of CMFRI who was one of the earliest scientists to study cephalopods in India.
“Taningia squids are very fast swimmers and generally don’t inhabit inshore waters, so it’s not easy to find even one, let alone track populations,” said Sasikumar. She adds that they inhabit the twilight and midnight zones (waters deeper than 200 m), down to the sea floor – depths that are difficult to study, requiring expensive remotely operated vehicles that ensure safe sampling while reducing harm to other species and reducing risk for humans.
Sasikumar said that CMFRI hopes to study more T. silasii individuals to better understand the species, its role in the ecosystem and factors influencing its population and presence. Studying deep-sea creatures needs large funds and expensive equipment, without which, research is slow.
Cooperation with commercial fisheries can help study the ocean and ensure sustainability measures, such as avoiding collecting specimens during breeding season, are adopted.
Banner image: T. silasii by Geetha Sasikumar and K.K. Sajikumar.
The bulls were the first thing visitors noticed. Seven of them, huge and muscled, grazing under acacia trees in the heat of Tamil Nadu’s drylands, when a reporter from The Hindu visited in 2012.
They were Kangayam cattle, a native breed once counted in the hundreds of thousands. Now their numbers are falling fast. A short woman in a mustard sari would walk up to the biggest of them, put her hand on his face, and lead him calmly away, as though the animal had decided long ago that he could trust her.
She spent nearly every waking hour with those bulls. She took them out to graze. She brought them water mixed with feed so they stayed strong. She trained them to be gentle, even when age and instinct might have made them dangerous. She rarely travelled. Her mother ran the kitchen. Her life was here.
Her name was Soundaram Ramaswamy of Kathasamipalayam village, in western Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district. People called her “Kalakara Amma,” the Bull Lady. That is how Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, a cattle-breed conservation advocate who had known her since the late 2000s, introduced her to others.
She was perhaps the only woman bull-keeper in the region, and one of the very few anywhere who kept so many stud bulls used for natural breeding. Nearly every day, farmers travelled long distances so their cows could be serviced. She stayed beside the animals the entire time. “My bulls need me beside them all the time,” she once said.
What she was doing mattered far beyond her village’s boundaries. Kangayam cattle can survive droughts. They thrive on tough grasses that would not sustain other animals. For generations they helped plough farms, haul loads and support rural livelihoods. But tractors replaced bullocks. Imported dairy breeds replaced native ones.
She protected more than cattle. Ten acres of her land were dedicated to korangadu, a traditional dryland pasture system with 29 species of trees and shrubs. The United Nations once called it a “globally important agricultural heritage system.” Others nearby were selling these lands for development. She did not.
She was honoured with the National Biodiversity Authority’s Breed Saviour Award. Her work was later presented at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya. She became a quiet symbol of rural conservation, admired by farmers, students and scientists.
When she whistled, the bulls came running to her. They would stand beside her like children, waiting. She devoted herself to a living heritage that could have been lost without people like her.
She died, aged around 59, on December 2, 2025. She leaves behind her family, her community and a breed that is a little safer because she refused to let it disappear. Her legacy will continue to graze those fields, heads lifted, listening for a familiar whistle.
Banner image: Soundaram Ramaswamy was called “Kalakara Amma,” the Bull Lady and perhaps the only woman bull keeper in the region. Image courtesy of Senaapathy Kangayam Cattle Research Foundation.
A new paper finds that, with modifications, the Chinese Glacial Lake Management System could be a promising tool to reduce the impacts of catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the Himalayas.
GLOFs occur when water from glacial lakes – formed at the bottom, side, or within glaciers – suddenly breaches on account of slope failure, overtopping or other reasons. India has the second highest number of glacier lakes after China, numbering 508, according to the Central Water Commission. Almost 50% of larger lakes have increased in size by more than 20% from 2011 to 2023.
“Although the overall frequency of GLOFs has shown a weak decreasing trend over the past three decades, the damage to downstream communities and infrastructure has escalated due to rising exposure and vulnerability,” the study notes.
The Chinese Glacial Lake Management System (GLMS) operates through three core functions: The first is an automated early warning system based on monitoring data, which is disseminated through mobile networks and alarms. The second is engineering interventions on lake sites, such as siphon drainage, embankment reinforcement, and spillway construction. The third is having personnel or a department dedicated to managing glacial lakes, acting as coordinators between the central government, local agencies, and communities.
Before the GLMS was operationalised, 31 GLOFs occurred in China between 2005 and 2019, six of which caused significant damage, including the destruction of at least 88 buildings, around 71 km of roads, 30 bridges, and two fatalities. Between 2019 and 2023 – after the GLMS was operationalised – China experienced four GLOF events but minimal destruction and no fatalities. “Community participation and timely early warning mechanisms, where local managers successfully issued warnings for glacial lake outburst events, demonstrate the advantages of the “One lake, One chief” responsibility system in GLMS,” says the study.
By comparison, of the 16 GLOFs that occurred outside China in the same time period, seven caused damage to over 60 people, 58 bridges, 30 kilometers of roads, and 26,354 buildings. This includes the breach of the South Llonak lake in Sikkim.
Glacial lakes are projected to increase by around 377 kilometers in the future, nearly three times the extent mapped in 2000. The Central Himalayas, which fall in India, account for nearly 40% of this projected expansion, the study says. “A combination of early warning systems, engineering interventions, and community preparedness measures can significantly reduce GLOF risks. In particular, controlled water level drawdown has the potential to reduce flood intensity by up to 24%,” it says.
The Indian government launched the National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Risk Mitigation Programme (NGRMP) in four states in 2024, in the aftermath of the Sikkim GLOF. The programme sets aside a budget of ₹150 crores (₹1.5 billion) for states to set up monitoring and early warning systems.
Banner image: The Kapuche Glacier Lake in Nepal. Image by Sarojpandey via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0].
Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in Karnataka, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travellers who pass beneath them find little reason to wonder how they came to be, or who first pressed a sapling into the ground more than seventy years ago. Yet that green corridor — nearly four hundred trees strong — was the life’s work of a woman who owned almost nothing and asked for even less.
She was born around 1911, in a village so small it barely warranted a name on a map. There was no school; she worked as a labourer in a quarry. She married young, to a man who stammered and shared her steady resilience. They were childless, a fact that in rural Karnataka brought more than sorrow — it brought shame. One day, she later recalled, the couple decided to plant trees instead, “and tend to them like we would our children.” So they did. In the dry season, they carried pails of water for miles to nurture their banyans. They fenced them from grazing cattle, shaded them from heat. In time, their “children” took root.
Her name was Saalumarada Thimmakka — the epithet “Saalumarada,” meaning “row of trees,” bestowed by neighbours once her work transformed the landscape. Long after her husband died, she continued to walk the roadside she had greened, touching the trunks as one might pat the shoulders of grown sons. She lived alone in a hut that filled slowly with plaques and garlands from officials who came to honour her, though her phone was sometimes disconnected for want of a bill payment. “People come and give me certificates,” she once said, “but no money.”
Fame found her late. A local journalist wrote her story in 1996, catching the attention of India’s new prime minister, who brought her to Delhi to receive the National Citizen’s Award. Others followed: the Padma Shri in 2019, an honorary doctorate, the BBC’s list of 100 Women. When she blessed the president of India at the awards ceremony, he bowed his head and later wrote that he had been “deeply touched.” She had, by then, planted more than 8,000 trees.
She dreamed of building a hospital in her husband’s memory, though bureaucrats demurred. She died in Bengaluru on November 14th, at about 114. The banyans remain — roots and branches entwined with the grief and grace of the woman who mothered them into being.
Banner image: Saalumarada Thimakka. Image by Arun4speed via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).
The latest update to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Synthesis Report from the UN Climate Change secretariat shows that the global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions curve is beginning to bend downward, but not quickly enough. Much faster action will be needed to meet the Paris Agreement goals, it says.
Issued on November 10 by Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, the update summarises new and revised national pledges submitted since the 2025 NDC Synthesis Report in October. In total, 113 Parties have communicated NDCs between January 2024 and November 9 2025, including 22 new submissions and one revision, together covering about 69% of 2019 global GHG emissions.
According to the analysis, total global GHG emissions including land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) are projected at 48.9 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2035, about 12% below 2019 levels. Without LULUCF, emissions are estimated at 49.4 gigatonnes, or roughly 7% lower.
For the 113 Parties with new NDCs, emissions in 2035 are expected to average 32.1 Gt CO2 eq. Full implementation of conditional targets could reduce this to 31.4 gigatonnes (-14 %), while implementing unconditional targets alone would mean GHG emissions reach 32.7 gigatonnes (-10%). These figures reflect the average and range implied by conditional and unconditional commitments.
The update marks a major change from pre-Paris trajectories. Before 2015, global emissions for 2035 were projected to rise by 20-48%. Current estimates instead suggest a 12% decline, illustrated in the report’s comparison of pre- and post-Paris trends. The baseline projections draw on IPCC Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 4-6, 3-7 and 5-8.5 — scenarios with limited or no climate policies.
Global totals also include illustrative projections for sectors not covered by NDCs, such as international aviation and shipping, with LULUCF data harmonised to IPCC-assessed scenarios.
Countries contributing to the latest submissions include China, the European Union and its member states, Indonesia, South Africa, Türkiye, and several developing and small-island nations. Their pledges span major emitting sectors and align with long-term net-zero strategies.
The updated synthesis fulfils Article 4 requirements for five-yearly NDC communication and responds to COP21 and CMA 3 decisions for annual updates. The findings will guide deliberations at COP30 in Belém, where countries will assess collective progress and seek stronger global climate ambition.
Banner image: Opening of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in the Brazilian Amazon. Image by UN Climate Change – Kiara Worth (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
India reaffirmed its commitment to equity, climate justice and multilateralism at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, delivering statements on behalf of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) and Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) groups.
The Indian delegation underscored that the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), along with the full and effective implementation of the Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, remain the foundation of the global climate regime. The CBDR-RC principle recognises that richer nations must take the lead, given their historical emissions and greater capacity.
The statement from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, issued on November 11, said India expressed “full and unwavering support for multilateralism and international cooperation on climate change, particularly in the current geopolitical context.”
Marking ten years of the Paris Agreement, India emphasised that climate finance continues to be the key barrier to higher ambition. It called for a clear and universally agreed definition of climate finance, stronger and scaled-up public finance for adaptation. India also urged for the implementation of Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, reaffirming the legal obligation of developed countries to provide finance to developing nations.
The statement noted that adaptation finance must increase nearly fifteenfold to meet current needs and noted significant gaps in doubling adaptation finance by 2025. Adaptation, India said, is an urgent priority for billions of vulnerable people in developing countries who have contributed the least to global warming but are among the most affected.
India urged a strong outcome on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and supported the continuation of the UAE–Belém Work Programme and the launch of the Baku Adaptation Roadmap “to ensure that no one is left behind.”
It also underlined the need for reliable, affordable and equitable access to climate technologies, stating that “intellectual property and market barriers must not hinder technology transfer to developing nations.”
On just transitions, India called for action-oriented institutional arrangements to ensure that transitions are rooted in equity and justice and help narrow the development gap between the Global North and South.
Speaking for BASIC and LMDC, India also recalled the historical and ongoing responsibility of developed nations, stating that they must reach net-zero earlier to preserve equitable carbon space, invest in negative emissions technologies, and fulfil their obligations on finance, technology transfer and capacity-building to developing countries.
India cautioned that unilateral climate-related trade measures risk becoming “instruments of protectionism” that undermine multilateral cooperation. Article 3.5 of the UN Climate Convention states that climate policies should not be used as hidden trade barriers or instruments of protectionism.
Banner image: Around the venue at COP30. Image © UN Climate Change – Kiara Worth/(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
New evidence suggests the Western Ghats are a suitable landscape to support the co-existence of humans and dholes, but that the stability of this relationship depends on the extent of agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure development in the region.
A study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the National Centre for Biological Sciences sought to understand how dholes, also known as Asiatic wild dogs, share space with humans in the tea dominated agroforests of the Western Ghats. Dholes are listed as endangered species by the IUCN, and have lost 60% of their habitat range in India over the last century. However, they continue to be found in the Western Ghats, as well as the forests of Central and Northeast India.
Dholes were chosen as the subject of the study because despite being top predators, “funding and management efforts are often limited almost exclusively to protected areas (PAs), and remain heavily biased toward certain charismatic species,” the study said. Understanding how large carnivores like dholes interact with human-dominated landscapes “is vital for both human safety and carnivore conservation.”
Only about 1,000-2,000 adult dhole individuals remain in India, having been impacted by habitat fragmentation and deforestation. Dholes are social and known to travel in packs of two to 24 individuals, but prefer to live away from human habitations. Previous research has shown that demographic and geographic isolation have played a role in sustaining dhole populations in India.
The WCS study found that in the Valparai district of the Western Ghats, in Tamil Nadu, even though dholes could be found in areas where livestock was present, they preferred to prey on wild ungulates. Valparai has large swathes of agroforests sustaining coffee, tea, cardamom, and other crop plantations that are interspersed with forest patches.
By analysing scat samples from latrine sites visited between April and May 2023, the research revealed sambar deer to be the most consumed biomass by dholes, followed by wild gaur. Through satellite imagery, camera trap surveys, and ground-based surveys, the study also found that dhole packs appeared to “favor areas with higher direct visibility, which likely helps them guard the pack from human-induced disturbances.”
“We also found that space use was relatively higher in flatter areas away from human settlements,” says the study, adding, “Higher probabilities of use in flatter terrain may be attributed to their (coursing) hunting strategy. However, future land-use changes in Valparai driven by proliferating tourism and the subsequent infrastructure development, or the intensification of agriculture could negatively impact this stability.”
Banner image: Representative image of a dhole. Image by Vinoth Chandar via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
