Private mining interests are making a beeline to mineral-rich states like Orissa and Jharkhand. But how is this thrust on mining to be reconciled with tribal livelihood?

Forest officials concoct census figures to save their own skin as tigers vanish from Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan

The fitness fad has spurred the ‘nutraceuticals’ industry. But, in the absence of regulations, how will this good health-in-a-capsule culture affect our lives?

The 10th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (CoP-10) comes a cropper. Respondents to a Down To Earth survey share their experiences of climate change; studies, too, show there's nothing imaginary about its impacts

Indians are denied access to map-based information for almost half of the country on the pretext of national security. Ironically, such information is digitally available on the web. Why does the government possess a penchant for obsolete secrecy?

India is knowingly importing huge volumes of hazardous waste

The Green Rating Project of the Centre for Science and Environment presents its second rating of the Indian paper and pulp industry. How has the industry fared?

A phone call from a doctor in AIIMS sets Down To Earth on the arsenic trail: the problem is more widespread that we thought. But the government continues to be indifferent

On its golden anniversary nuclear power decides to shed its associations with destruction and violence and reinvent itself as a clean and reliable energy resource. Is it biting off more than it can chew?

Massive debts...high input costs...low yields...but the real killer is how agriculture has been rendered unviable for small and marginal farmers in the state

Governments can rush into renewables, if they wish. But when it comes to a global compact on such energies — one such is expexted at Bonn, Germany — will poorer nations really profit?