Athirappally power project isn’t ecologically feasible: MK Prasad

Silent Valley movement architect MK Prasad speaks on why the recently-cleared Kerala project should not be pursued

‘Restrictions have been lifted, but people’s spirits are broken’

23-year-old Asil Qraini from West Bank of Palestinian territory talks about living under COVID-19 restrictions   

‘There could be a racist backlash to the current anti-racism movements’

Race science has been used to justify colonial occupation, slavery, genocide; it became so ingrained that we still live with its devastating effects today, says science journalist Angela Saini

‘Who created the terms superior and inferior races?’

Down To Earth speaks to activist Binalakshmi Nepram about race in the light of the US race riots over George Floyd's death

‘Periods don't stop for pandemics, neither should our activism’

Srilekha Chakraborty, the woman behind menstrual health campaign #PeriodsPeCharcha, talks about introducing changes in ways menstrual health is looked at in Jharkhand's tribal villages

‘COVID-19 could have started 3-4 months before December in China’

Down To Earth speaks to Maureen Miller, infectious disease epidemiologist and medical anthropologist about the possible origins of the novel coronavirus

‘Exiting COVID-19 lockdown needs robust disease surveillance’

If the virus spreads to rural areas and the Hindi heartland, we may have a peak much later, T Sundararaman, former dean at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, says in a video interview

COVID-19 labour laws dilution: ‘Neo-liberal character has eroded welfare state’

We have moved back to the 19th century in regard to labour laws, says labour economist KR Shyam Sundar

Understanding zoonotic diseases: ‘How we interact with environment drives spillovers’

The scope and scale of deforestation and opening of new interfaces with forests and wildlife increases the chances of spillovers, says health expert Prashanth NP

Understanding zoonotic diseases: ‘Humans tend to be naive to emerging viruses’

Population growth, rapid urbanisation and climate change are leading to the increase in new viruses, says Pranav Pandit, veterinary epidemiologist, University of California, Davis

Understanding zoonotic diseases: ‘Humans are changing disease ecosystem’

Burden of neglected zoonotic diseases is vastly under-reported, says Bethan Purse, ecologist, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Understanding zoonotic diseases: ‘Global human interaction has eased transmission’

Globalisation and population explosion have led to increase in human-to-human transmission of viruses, says Sanath Krishna Muliya, project scientist at Wildlife Institute of India

Understanding zoonotic diseases: ‘Enthusiasm for game meat to have prime impact on human health’

Human encounters with new viruses have increased significantly in the past decade, says Nirmal Kumar Gali from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

COVID-19: ‘It is easy to blame bats than to look at ourselves’

Bat expert Tigga Kingston flags societal behaviour, human prejudice amid increasing vilification of bats for novel coronavirus

‘Chinese food is so entrenched in our lives; COVID-19 can’t change that’

Down To Earth talks to Miranda Brown, historian of premodern Chinese food and medicine and University of Michigan professor, about Chinese cuisine in the wake of COVID-19

We started planning before first COVID-19 case was reported: Pinarayi Vijayan

Creative accounting, window dressing apart Centre's COVID-19 relief package 0.5% of GDP: Jean Drèze

The Centre announced a relief package recently and a few other interim measures after the 21-day nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19 left millions across India in the lurch without work, food or a place to go. Is the government up to the task? What awaits the bottom of the pyramid? DTE spoke …

The Sikh Gurus' service to the sick can be a lesson for today's pandemic

Down To Earth speaks to Mohinder Singh, professor and director of the National Institute of Panjab Studies and Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan,New Delhi, about epidemics and public health in Sikh history

Throwback at the time of COVID-19: ‘1897 plague caused distancing but there was a socially cohesive mass’

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist. But his memoir From a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual brought out another aspect of him: A keen chronicler of events that shaped our existence. The COVID-19 pandemic was a trigger for Down To Earth to dig into his world of social and environmental …

‘Chinese medicine’s use of animals a threat to entire world’

Down to Earth speaks to US scientist and doctor, David Gorski about Traditional Chinese Medicine in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic

COVID-19: ‘Pandemics are the spillovers of globalisation’

To harvest the benefits of globalisation, one has to manage the risks. The answer is not deglobalisation.