Forest to farms
India's paper industry now sources more wood from farmers. Why does it still demand forestland?
Let’s talk
On February 24, Centre for Science and Environment raised the curtains for the Anil Agarwal Dialogues on green clearances. The two-day conclave …
Just like a forest
Analog forestry mimics a forest to create an economically productive and ecologically diverse landscape
Cancun redux
Reflecting upon the fifth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization at Cancun, a Down To Earth editorial (see: "How not to lose …
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 …
One step forward, two steps back
Countries want to do little to keep global average temperature rise to below 2oC. The Warsaw climate talks have exposed this. A report by Uthra …
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?
Reflections on glass
Use of glass in construction has become a fad. But it is not the right choice for Indian climate
Power games at UN climate talks
Climate talks unfolded amid high drama. Developing countries protested inaction by developed countries, civil society organisations walked out, …
World gets a yellow card
The Warsaw climate talks serve a grim warning to the world that inaction will cost, writes Chandra Bhushan as he leaves Warsaw just before the …
Rescued or doomed
Nations adopt a diluted agreement at Bonn on implementing the Kyoto Protocol. 180 countries finally reached an agreement on the rules to …
Time to Plug in
The International Conference for Renewable Energies is to be held in Bonn, Germany. But here is a sector dwarfed by fossil fuels, and although …
A journey called change
Their struggle for survival and progress has shaped the understanding of environmentalism both at the national and global levels and influenced …
Punjab's paddy dilemma
In 2009, Punjab became the first state in the country to enact a law banning the sowing of rice before a stipulated date. The aim was to arrest …
Rice at risk
Growing paddy is not viable for small farmers of Kerala. Will the state be able to preserve the crop which delivers a number of ecological …
Meaty tales of vegetarian India
Indians are eating more meat and enjoying it. Higher incomes, global food chains and a vast population of young people indifferent to religious …
Tensions that continue
While launching this newsmagazine, our founder-editor Anil Agarwal had said that in the years ahead, India will have to seize every possible …
Chinese suplex
As China plays smart games in the business of rare earths, India braces itself to enter the fray
Bhutan’s experiments with happiness
The idyllic Buddhist kingdom believes that peace and happiness should take preference over material growth. In a world beset by inequities and …
ChevronTexaco on trial
October 21, 2003. High-level corporate lawyers from ChevronTexaco sit in the same packed muggy courtroom as bare-breasted Amazonian men and women …
Managing waste - the Chandigarh way
Le Corbusier's city is getting a face-lift. A unique programme of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), is ridding the city of the most …
Parched Mumbai
The news is out: water levels in Mumbai are over 15 per cent less than last year. It might seem routine but it has the city up in arms. …
Industrial devil-ution
Maharashtra and Gujarat. The brightest jewels in India's industrial crown. But impressive industrial growth figures fail to hide the grim …
Chernobyl
Twenty years ago -- on April 26, 1986 -- the biggest nuclear disaster happened in Chernobyl, in what was then the Soviet Union, when a chain …
A Nationalised Nightmare
One of the main reasons given for nationalising the coalmines of India was to protect workers from accidents. What followed was large-scale …