‘EIAs of mining projects have become a farce’
Christopher Albin-Lackey, senior researcher with New York-based non-profit Human Rights Watch (HRW), has documented the large-scale environmental …
“Environmental amnesia is constricting our intellect”
Though we are living in a highly degraded environment, we have failed to spot behavioural fallouts. Increasingly, children living in polluted …
Desperately seeking experts
The environmental situation in India is grave -- our natural resources are getting depleted at an alarming rate and there is an acute paucity of …
Locating the State
In September 2004, Down To Earth carried a two-part editorial on the failure of the State to deliver basic services. In the September 15, 2004 …
Why are we all falling ill
The pursuit of unsustainable economic growth, bad development policy, lack of good science, and poverty are a prescription for ill-health. These …
"Clean air can save many lives"
CARTER BRANDON an environmental economist in the environment and natural resources division of the World Bank (WB), has done considerable work …
Cries of anguish
Most Indians are defenceless against the fine toxic particles in the air -- largely products of vehicular emissions -- and scientists are finding …
Affected people can even approach the criminal court
JUSTICE N VENKATACHALA former judge of the Supreme Court, is currently chairperson of the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA). Set …
How carcinogenic is your CAR?
Do you want a country full of cars? Cars cause cancer. Scientists can even measure the cancer potency levels of the cars we ride. The so-called …
Pollution of Hinduisim
Simply put it is an amazing gap between theory and practice. Yet it is one of the main reasons why India's environment is as degraded as it is …
FIGHTING FOR AIR
Weighed down by extremely high levels of particles in the air, some Indian cities seem to be coming of age with regard to vehicular air pollution.…
The CNG sabotage
To clean up Delhi's air, the Supreme Court ruled in July 1998 that all public transport should move away from diesel and towards compressed …
Tribunal on trial
It has been four years since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Act was passed by Parliament for effective and expeditious disposal of cases …
The many ways of GM contamination
Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the food and environment programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is among the most …
Future compromised
The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came …
Kudankulam meltdown
The spectre of Fukushima continues to haunt the world, forcing governments in most parts of the globe to rethink their plans to tap this …
Food fighters
Why do siblings fight with each other? A look at the science behind this universally common behaviour
Alarming nets
An acoustic alarm called pinger could detract innocent porpoises that get trapped in fishing nets
Sharing the blame
The discovery of the role played by pre-historic people in the extinction of several species of animals and birds gives the subject of …
A fight to finish
Researchers have cracked the mystery behind parental aloofness among egrets as their elder offspring bloodily snuff the life out of their youngest
Of pug-marks and prowls
A recent study on the notion of territoriality among tigers reveals that females are more home-bound than the males
Calling for company
Among amphibians, vocal signals help distinguish between the different species and serve as tools for sexual selection. Recent studies …
Chew and spew
The fact that methane is crucially responsible in heating up the earth's atmosphere is well established, but the lesser-known truth is that the …
Resurrecting the dead
The discovery of the Riwoche horses in a remote area tucked away in the mountains of Tibet is being viewed as the missing block in the equine …
Raised to the ground
Measures to protect groundwater -- which accounts for 97 per cent of our freshwater resources -- from the pressures and pollution it is …
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