Andaman and Nicobar: Beyond India's landmass
Excerpts from Troubled Islands! by Pankaj Sekhsaria
Changing climes
Climate change is a very slow process, notoriously difficult to understand. Is it happening in India? Residents of some Himalayan towns, where …
Invasive Alien Species
Think of an invasion, and the picture that comes to mind is usually that of planes and tanks, machines and men, shells and gunshots. But animal …
Paradise in peril
Galpagos, an archipelago straddling the equator 1,000 km west of Ecuador, is probably the world's best-known biodiversity zone. But alien species …
Growing fences
Burgeoning population and agricultural encroachment in the last half century have erected artificial walls within the Gond tribes. These ethnic …
Acid rain arriving soon in India
It wreaked havoc in Europe. Now scientists are worried that acid rain may soon acquire grave proportions in India. Acid rainwater may cause …
Colours of Nature
An organisation in Mumbai documents the presence of dyeing pigments in microbes and plants
Nepal's poor carry it off
As the Himalayan country's forestry scheme for the poor reaps rich dividends, its government entrusts more degraded areas to the underprivileged. …
The secret garden
Want to know about a lost variety of rice or a cure to asthma? Answers lie in the notebooks of schoolchildren and women of the Sundarbans and …
The vanishing lakes
There is more water than land in north Bihar. The rivers that ramble down from the Himalaya feed numerous depressions scattered all over the …
Undone
10th climate change meet shows how weak the will to combat global warming has become
Dying repositories of the world's biodiversity
Rich in flora and fauna, rain forests are nevertheless ecologically fragile. Their loss due to human depredation could result in environmental …
Taxman's hedge
Searching for the great hedge in the UK, Dileep Chinchalker uncovers the story of a hedge that ran from Torbela near Rawalpindi to Calcutta in …
Catch a tiger by its pug
Accurate tiger census methodology assumes significance in the context of the recent controversy over the declining number of tigers in the Indian …
Looking beyond hype and nostalgia
To most modern Indian writers, the environment means trees, birds and animals -- and human beings, in aesthetic or metaphysical communion with them.
Making a start
Ground realities alone will determine the future of Himalayan biodiversity and the people of the area
Mira Behn: A friend of nature
The urge to be close to nature guided Madeleine Slade, who came to be known as Mira Behn, throughout her life
A ban on common sense
Various restrictions imposed to protect the environment at Nanda Devi in the Himalaya have disturbed the rural lifestyle and economy, doing …
Linking Up
Development of a protected area network is necessary to save the plants and animals of Sikkim
Forays of Ignorance
There is something seriously amiss in the way studies of wildlife have been conducted in Sikkim
Missing the grass for the trees
Overprotection of grasslands in India is leading to its decline
The unseen invader
Lesser known invasive species Hyptis suaveolens is spreading across India
"Serious study has not yet begun"
R Uma Shankar, Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, speaks to Down To Earth
"We need to be more proactive"
Dr. S. Ramani, senior scientist (Agricultural Entomology), Project Directorate of Biological Control (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), …
"Biological control is the way out"
Dr. R D Gautam, principal scientist and in-charge of the Plant Health Clinic, speaks to Down To Earth
