Science of the Common people

A recent congress highlighted the relevance of people-oriented science and technology such as the management of water, forests and agriculture.

The other course

Traditional curative systems like ayurveda, homoeopathy, acupuncture... are being revived as alternative medicine. But in India and the Orient, …

How To Sell A Wonder Herb

There is arogyapacha. A rare herb with extraordinary medicinal properties. There is the Kani tribe of Kerala. It has preserved the herb and the …

Knowledge seeks power

The rights of indigenous communities, which have nurtured traditional systems of knowledge through the ages, will be discussed at length at …

Deserted Delicacies

Abundant, nutritious and tasty. Yet, traditional desert food is gradually losing out to commercially grown crops

Archaeology helps to unlearn too

Archaeology is the science that studies the remains of past cultures by investigating and analysing the objects people leave behind. It is a …

Hydraulic marvel

An eighteenth-century canal system in Pune remains fresh despite long disuse

Mother Chokie

Beris to the rescue

Revival of rainwater harvesting structures quenches the thirst of a Thar village

Tried and tested

Traditional medical and agricultural practices, usually dismissed as unscientific, are regaining favour, with some help from Honeybee -- a …

Home remedies

Indigenous is the byword in the water harvesting techniques followed in India's northeast. In Meghalaya, an intricate network of bamboo pipes is …

Legacy of an empire

Encouraged by their ninth century benevolent rulers, Gond landlords and villagers had set up an intricate and immensely useful network of …

River Parliament

Cooking with kokum

Spice, fruit juice and now weight watchers' manna

Savour the lingra

Builder of bridges across troubled waters

A date with the palm

Savvy Soumya Misra spends a day with Mahoba’s palm collectors to find out why a card touches a raw chord amongst them

Little boxes of herbs

SUMANA NARAYANAN finds a 125-year-old shop selling herbal medicines in the lanes of Chennai

Old is gold

Bundled in a sacred basket

Tribal farmers in Jharkhand use mora made of rice straw to store grains

Forgotten healers

Traditional medicine system has time and again proved its worth. Then why the cold shoulder?

Water strongholds

Chittor and Ranthambhore. Proud traditions of valour, chivalry and patriotism are complemented by one of common sense in the storage and use of …

Making science of mumbo-jumbo

Scientists compile India's ethnic knowledge. They find a veritable gold-mine

Moses of Longleng

How the efforts of an individual brought prosperity to a remote town in the Northeast

Traditional wisdom

Researchers in Gujarat use rural expertise to predict weather when modern methods fail to make accurate forecast