Built to last

A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events

Environment Day special: ACmageddon

Good scheme in bad health

A little known community monitoring scheme could prove handy for the new government, which is readying to revamp the country's healthcare system

Out of favour

Focus on Alphonso has resulted in neglect of native mango varieties grown in the Western Ghats, some of which are on the brink of extinction

Tracking the elusive metallic spider

Sighted only twice in India since its discovery in 1899, the peacock spider is in huge demand as a pet in the West

Springing back to life

Two villages in Uttarakhand take lessons in hydrogeology to revive dry springs, end water conflict

Land of discord

Origin of the relentless strife in Bodoland lies in a series of blunders, right from colonial times

Banking on variety

Himachal villagers resist pine monoculture, reclaim forests for fodder

Loo and behold

People's power

Farmers in Chhattisgarh's coal-rich Gare village have floated a company to assert their rights over natural resources and resist land acquisiton …

The `hot' debate

Operationalisation of equity and financial assistance will determine the future of climate negotiations

Some nets and sunshine

Fishers in a Tamil Nadu village save cost and improve catch with solar panel-fitted boats

Scheme against jobs

Government is bent upon shrinking jobs for the poor by fundamentally changing the rural employment guarantee scheme against the advice of its …

Grow food anywhere

With innovative use of space, people in cities are reclaiming their right to safe food

Hunters turn protectors

Traditional hunters Phase Pardhis are part of an initiative to save critically endangered lesser floricans

Ugly is the new beautiful

A group of anonymous citizens in Bengaluru is cleaning filthy streets and inspiring change across India

Parched capital

While Delhi struggles to make rainwater harvesting compulsory even after 13 years of amending byelaws, Chennai shows the way

Kitchen strike for toilets

Women of a Maharashtra hamlet give husbands an ultimatum-build toilets or go without food

Search for a good hearth

While cook stoves in India are becoming fuel-efficient, they are not improving air quality, finds study

Power of concentration

India has every reason to push for concentrated solar power projects. But the technology has failed to pick up because of poor planning

The energy divide

Chronic power deprivation in some districts raises serious policy issues

Forest to farms

India's paper industry now sources more wood from farmers. Why does it still demand forestland?

Indigenous civil engineers

Traditional earth diggers and masons, who mined the Bhatti area of the Aravallis for decades, dig in their heels as the Delhi administration …

Tourism deal

Shark in a soup

The fish, high in demand for its fin, is dwindling in the Indian waters. Will a mere ban on finning protect it?