‘Tribal philosophy can’t be ignored beyond a point’

At a time when climate change is emerging as a reality, indigenous people are eager to give-up their low-carbon lifestyle and join the bandwagon …

What's eating the vulture?

There were 2,000 vultures in Bharatpur's Keoladeo National Park during the 1980s. In 1998 experts could spot only four . Ornithologist …

Are community reserves the answer to conservation?

The 2002 Amendment to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972) -- the bible of the conservation movement -- calls for a new category of …

A green company in a grey market

There was a time when Payinthulasi, a 40-year old herb gatherer of village Utchananthal in Virudunagar district of Tamil Nadu, had to trudge to …

Another world is possible

Optimism is a great friend but a bad guide. The Asian Social Forum meeting in Hyderabad, India, deliberately avoided this truism while …

On paper

The Green Rating Project (GRP) of the Centre for Science and Environment was conceived as a means to track the environmental performance of India'…

`We've strong evidence that eating sugar contributes to heart disease'

Kimber Stanhope, nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, US, is studying the health effects of fructose, a component of …

Chipko: an unfinished mission

In 20 years, Chipko has acquired many facets, primarily as a conservation endeavour by the poor, a struggle for local control of natural …

Agony of the waiting

There is a strange calmness in the oncology department of government hospitals though it is more crowded that most other sections. Everybody waits.…

Cries of anguish

Most Indians are defenceless against the fine toxic particles in the air -- largely products of vehicular emissions -- and scientists are finding …

Rights without benefits

Over 1.3 million tribals and forest dwellers have got rights over the land they had been using for years under the Forest Rights Act. This can, …

Will the boom last?

Fifteen years after it rose and went limp, the biotech sector, globally, as well as in India has seen a bull run of sorts. In January this year, …

Organic goes online

India’s organic food exports have found a new strength—online traceability. Web-based TraceNet can trace an organic product right …

Investment terror

Since the 1990s developing nations have been on a treaty spree, signing a vast number of bilateral and regional investment treaties to attract …

'Poor nations need Codex education'

Sanjay Dave, director of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), was recently elected chairperson of …

Umbilical Discord

An estimated 8,000 babies are born with neural defects every year in Rajasthan. Most of them die within a few months of birth. They are lucky. …

A Public Effort

Where the government has failed miserably in providing quality service to the people, some ngos have set an example on how urban waste can be …

Bogged Down

Waste generation is not rare in urban areas, nor any other part of the world. The only difference is in the management of wastes. An effective, …

India's groundwater is flooded with fluoride

Fluoride is an acute toxin, with a rating slightly higher than lead. It is, in fact, one of the most bone-seeking elements known to human beings. …

Children of a lesser State

A rare killer disease, Japanese encephalitis, has been annually and invariably breaking out in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. This year, so far, 3,…

Don't need subsidies, give us the right price

For most Indians, Mahendra Singh Tikait is the man who brought Delhi to its knees in 1988 with a rally that brought the national capital face to …

Remembering Nammalvar: farewell, organic saint-warrior

G Nammalvar, the agriculture scientist who pioneered organic farming movement in Tamil Nadu, passed away on December 30 at the age of 75. He …

Deadly Particles

They are tiny and deadly. Recent research has brought to light the existence of airborne particles so tiny they defy measurement. Toxic particles …

Eyeing the coastlines

Further dilution of the rules safeguarding the Indian coastal ecosystem has just been proposed. Under the guise of providing land to poor …

Exhausting Practices

Prescribed as the antidote for all problems related to vehicular pollution, Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates have been an obsession …