Awarded : Bhaonta-Kolyala

... for reviving the Arvari river, for showing that a healthy ecology and good water management mean prosperity, for proving that drought is a myth

NEEDED: A WAKE-UP CALL

Foresters need to throw away their blinkers. Scientists need to prioritise areas of research

TRAMPLED DESTINIES

What happens if conservation is based on half-baked knowledge? Ask a person rendered homeless by wildlife managers "No conservation strategy …

WORKING IN ISOLATION

A mutual lack of trust and understanding between forest officials and wildlife scientists may be responsible for the mismanagement of India's …

CONSERVATION TO DEATH

Misguided conservation efforts are leading to depletion of biodiversity and exploitation of poor people

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 …

Give native knowledge its due place

Drugged by chicken

Antibiotics in meat make disease-causing bacteria resistant to cures

We must explore India’s forgotten recipes, switch to good food culture: experts

In an era of convenience food and TV dinner, it’s a challenge to rediscover our traditional foods

Not-so-organic fests

Literature fests have spread all over the subcontinent, like an epidemic

Paan loses flavour

Iconic paan no more appeals to farmers, traders and common people. They say the contagious spread of chewing tobacco, especially gutkha, is fast …

The Monsanto way

How the US multinational won state governments and influenced policy

Paying farmers for ecological services

A belief in tradition

It was a unique ceremony for a unique award given to a unique rural community of India. In what is perhaps the first ceremony of its kind, …

Back in f(l)avour

Entry of high yielding hybrid rice has spelt doom for traditional diversity in the Konkan belt. Thanks to a science academy, the ancient legacy …

Fading colours

Natural dyes, now popular in the West, are yet to make it big in the Indian market, reports R V Singh (Read full article)

Drought is in the mind

GOOD NEWS: There is more evidence to show that water harvesting can go a long way in dealing with drought and solving the water crisis, and even …

Political harvest

Report card: A scheme that can help solve the water crisis has become a tool to promote political interests of the ruling party Success level: Poor

Learning the mantra

Report card: The government realised its failures and learned from the civil society. Despite cases of corruption and some errors in planning, …

Pursuing a nationalist IPR policy

India has enough laws to protect its intellectual property rights. It is the implementation that is wanting

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION

Knowledge without power, and power bereft of knowledge. This, in sum, is the story of mismanagement of wildlife and protected forests in India. …

Can permaculture make agriculture sustainable?

Is permaculture a real solution to agricultural distress?

Permaculture farming, which spread across the West as part of the hippie movement, is fast gaining ground in India among subsistence farmers and …

What drives innovation?

The new Intellectual Property Rights policy is based on a tenuous premise that having more IPRs will result in more innovation

Plant a bone

Plant-based treatment of osteoporosis is gaining ground. The Central Drug Research Institute is adding new dimensions to ancient remedies