Highlights from the issue

Highlights from the issue

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Sunita Narain's Desk: Monsoon in flux

Illustration: Yogendra Anand / CSE

A super El Niño this year will test how climate change is reshaping India's rainfall economy

Cover story: Silent spread

Fernando Quevedo

Ozone is rewriting India’s air-pollution script. Haze and respiratory illness are no longer just winter afflictions. Tackling this new-age, multi-source pollutant will require air quality and climate policy to pull in the same direction

Column: Summer smog

After a deadly smog episode in winter this year, the city witnessed severe ozone pollution this summer
After a deadly smog episode in winter this year, the city witnessed severe ozone pollution this summer

Ground-level ozone is one of the national capital’s least appreciated public health threat, says pulmonologist S K Chhabra

Special report: El Niño, amplified

During the super El Niño of 1876-78, Asian regions influenced by monsoon suffered the most intense and extensive drought in 800 years
During the super El Niño of 1876-78, Asian regions influenced by monsoon suffered the most intense and extensive drought in 800 yearsVikas Choudhary / CSE

As a possible super El Niño looms in 2026, scientists warn of devastations that may extend into 2027

Interview: ‘Key uncertainties remain’

Mariam Zachariah, research associate at Imperial College London, UK
Mariam Zachariah, research associate at Imperial College London, UK

Climate models still cannot predict how El Niño will behave in a warming world, says Mariam Zachariah, research associate at Imperial College London, UK

Data card: City of two summers

Delhi: City of two summers
Informal workers gather around roadside stalls selling chilled drinks on a hot afternoon in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar.Photographs: Vikas Choudhary / CSE

Delhi’s heat hotspots are also home to half of its population who live and work outdoors with limited means of adaptation

Special report: A mindless denial

Since 2013, members of Tharu tribe have struggled to get access to forest resources in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district
Since 2013, members of Tharu tribe have struggled to get access to forest resources in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district (Photographs: sahvaniya Rana)

District level bodies are increasingly refusing tribal population's rights over resources guaranteed by the forest rights Act

Column: Need a forest tribunal

Members of Tharu tribe at a protest meeting in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2023
Members of Tharu tribe at a protest meeting in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2023(Photographs: Sahvaniya Rana)

A tribunal will provide people a dedicated independent forum where they will have a statutory right to approach

First take: Don't waste the future

Illustration: Yogendra Anand / CSE

Policymakers may need to focus less on expanding programmes and more on improving their effective- ness and reach, suggests the latest NFHS-6 data

Civil lines: Moment or movement

Moment or movement
A scene from the June 6, 2026 protest organised by CJP at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.Abhijeet Dipke / X

India is witnessing youth movements it has not seen in years. Whether these are just moments or will they metamorphose into movements?

Patently absurd: Global resistance to AI data centres hardens

India must learn how to regulate environmentally disastrous data centres that guzzle more water and power than entire nations

Diary: A forest in wait

Amila, a resident of Abujhmad, travels across the Kotri river on handcrafted dongis to the local haat  in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, to sell a rooster. The dongis, though old and rundown, are the only way Abujhmadiya can cross the river to reach other parts of the state.
Amila, a resident of Abujhmad, travels across the Kotri river on handcrafted dongis to the local haat in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, to sell a rooster. The dongis, though old and rundown, are the only way Abujhmadiya can cross the river to reach other parts of the state.(Photographs: Ankur Tiwari)

For five decades, Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh was closed to the country. Now, as the region opens up, villages in its dense forests show how isolation has impacted the people and development

Down To Earth
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