More than a quarter of the world's population has vision impairment: WHO

The first-ever World Vision Report warns that ageing populations mean a dramatic rise in vision impairment world-wide

Twinning Europe and Asia in cyberspace

There are plenty of lessons for ASEAN to learn from the dynamics of the EU’s cyber regulations such as GDPR and e-IDAS and, use them to …

Big earthquake could hit Bangladesh, northeast India

Tremendous strain is building up due to plate convergence under Bangladesh, says a new paper. A single big rupture could cause a magnitude 9 quake

Quarter of global population faces extremely high water stress each year

West Asia and North Africa most water-stressed  

10 disturbing trends for Asia and the Pacific

The region is ageing rapidly, has the largest number of threatened species and more

Rodent menace

The plague of Samar Island

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2023: The Orang Asli use traditional knowledge to save Malayan tigers

Down To Earth spoke to Phung Chee Chean, Kenyir Project Problem Analyst for Panthera, on the Orang Asli protectors of Malaysia’s last tigers

Unsafe WASH behind 395,000 deaths of children under 5 in 2019: WHO report

Most WASH-attributable deaths were reported from the WHO African and South-East Asia regions  

‘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 …

Mekong's water levels fall as new Laos dam begins operations

The water levels in Southeast Asia’s great river have fallen to their lowest in 100 years

Khar’s experimentation with Himalayan nettle brings recognition

Himalayan nettle, a fibre-yielding plant, has become an important livelihood option for people living in the remote mountainous villages of the …

The revenge of the boar

The wild pig can be a danger to humans, as some very special ones in northern Iraq found recently

Asia witnessed 63 per cent jump in e-waste generation in five years

A UN study revealed that most of these countries lack the infrastructure to recycle e-waste safely and cleanly

Nepal’s tigers triple: India had and will continue to have a role to play, say experts

Nepal now has 355 tigers, compared to 235 in 2018

UNITED NATIONS

‘It is the elephant-headed aspect so prevalent in Ganesha that has allowed his icon to gain a foothold in many cultures’

Down To Earth speaks to Lode Rosseels, a Belgian engineer, linguist and Japanologist, on Ganesha's journey from India to Tibet, China and Japan

Climate disasters are becoming more frequent in west, central Asia than other regions: IMF

West and central Asia are hotspots for climate change due to their geographical setting, says new paper

Around 1.3 billion people at high risk of conflict and displacement: Report

The most vulnerable countries are clustered in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Every fifth child faces water scarcity globally: Unicef report

More than 155 million children in South Asia live in areas with high or even extremely high water vulnerability, Unicef says

RCEP, the world’s biggest trade deal, has been signed; but what exactly is it?

The final text confers no special rights on foreign corporations to sue governments through what are known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement …

WHO focuses on ways to improve health in southeast Asia

The 72nd regional meeting of WHO for the south-east Asian region was inaugurated on September 2, 2019 in Delhi

Larger spleen helps Indonesia’s Bajau people demonstrate extraordinary diving skills

They are the first humans to have genetically adapted to have larger spleens which help them dive deeper and for longer periods

Never too late to learn

Vernacular comics, literary primers, a newsletter called Leaves: that's the way to teach those in Asia who've never had the chance

Indian scientists receive international award on behalf of snow leopard conservation alliance

There may be as few as 4,000 and no more than 6,300 snow leopards left in the wild

How the saltwater crocodile once lorded over Vietnam’s waterways…and then died out

A new article published in the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter details the history of saltwater crocodiles in Vietnam and southern China