No health net for 3.1 bln by 2023 deadline

The World Health Organization (WHO) 13th General Programme of Work targeted universal health coverage (UHC) between 2019 and 2023

Bengal govt cites COVID-19 excuse for not phasing out old commercial vehicles

Large commercial vehicles, including goods carriers and buses, account for 74-80% of PM 2.5 and PM 10 in Howrah and Kolkata

Bitter bounty: Why karela leaves can be a good harvest off your kitchen garden

Bitter gourd leaves not only have medicinal and nutritive properties, they can be added to tasty recipes as well 

Ulcerative colitis explained, as Shinzo Abe retires

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has announced that he is retiring due to worsening health. The condition 65-year-old Abe suffers from is ulcerative colitis. But what exactly is this disease?

Global Eco Watch: Key Indonesia law incapable of protecting 80% of rainforest vulnerable to palm oil plantation

Down To Earth brings you the top happenings in the world of global ecology

Court Digest: Major environment hearings of the week (August 24-28, 2020)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal through the week

Book Digest: Calls to action against climate change, air pollution and more

Role of technology to fight off COVID-19 pandemic to inevitability of climate crisis, DTE tracks new, contemporary books on environment and development from leading authors  

Reservoirs across India filling up as country receives good rains

However, 14 out of the 123 reservoirs monitored by the CWC are 100% full

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (August 28, 2020)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

EIA 2020 to give straight clearances for 239 dams

Some 900 hectares of forest will be submerged with the dams, claim experts  

Experts slam trial for new Bt brinjal variety, cite regulatory lapses

The Event 142 variety of genetically modified brinjal was quietly approved for field trials without any data in the public domain, claim experts

Togo first in Africa to end sleeping sickness

The west African country did not report any cases for the past 10 years, achieving this feat after more than 2 decades of disease surveillance

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (August 27, 2020)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

COVID-19 warriors: How a woman in a tribal village shared vegetables from her kitchen garden

Krishna Mawasi, who lives in Kailhora village in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, claims to have helped the hungry and destitute during the lockdown

Coronavirus update: Finance minister Sitharaman falls back on 'act of god'

 Sitharaman says there may an economic contraction ahead due to ‘extraordinary situation’

Did a supernova trigger the late Devonian extinction?

Earth suffered an intense loss of species diversity that lasted for at least 300,000 years, possibly caused by long-lasting ozone depletion, finds study

COVID-19: 66% of children unable to get remote learning are from south Asia, Africa, says UNICEF

Voicing concerns over the limited reach of remote learning exacerbated with regional inequalities, UNICEF urges countries to prioritise the safe-reopening of schools

New discovery of protein in plants’ immune systems can help create superior crops, boost agriculture

A flood of calcium surrounds plants’ stomata triggering them to close and resist pathogens; exactly how calcium entered cells remained unclear until now

Africa eradicates polio, but vaccine-driven outbreaks rise

In Asia, India too was declared polio-free in 2014, but cVDPV was reported 50 times in the country in the past six years

NASA maps trace causes of global mangrove habitat loss

While overall mangrove habitat loss declined between 2000 and 2016, losses from natural causes such as erosion and extreme weather declined more slowly than human causes

All tuberculosis patients to be screened for COVID-19

Studies show up to 4.47% of COVID-19 patients have prevalence of tuberculosis