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 …

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)

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. …

The weather mart

Met department is not the only one predicting weather in India. Forecasts are now sold by businesses to businesses

Fruitful deliberations

Two global meetings chart a course for weeding out biopiracy

REVIVING WISDOM

Rainwater is abundant in India. So is its mismanagement. This has led to a human-made water scarcity. The only way to solve modern India's water …

Searching for Roots

India's wealth of flora and fauna provide a rainbow of natural dyes

Orphans of the river

Riverine fisherfolk, arguably the oldest among traders, are being sold down the river. An unholy synergy of poisoned rivers, government apathy …

Wisdom roots

Disclosure-shy industry

Pharma and biotech firms are lobbying hard to block disclosure of origin of genetic material used in inventions, but they also raise thorny issues

Fishery degradation in Pakistan: A poverty-environment nexus?

The number of fishing vessels in Pakistani coastal waters has been steadily increasing but the fish catches steadily decreasing. Press reports …

Field day

India's soils are in a bad shape. T V Jayan investigates

The scientist as a babu

Rising power of the knowledge commons

By ending ownership of ideas we can banish ignorance and change human history

The Avon lady lifts our biodiversity

Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material

Tryst with rain

Following the monsoon failure of 1999-2000, two states - Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh - launched crash programmes to encourage water harvesting. An …

YAWN!

The Indian Science Congress 2001 represented the state of science in India

Contaminating millets

There is disquiet over government scheme to wean traditional millet farmers on chemical inputs

Organic thread

Even as Bt cotton invaded Indian fields in the past few years, some farmer groups kept pushing for organic cotton. In 2009-10, production in …

Common concerns

As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers come together to devise ways to protect shared resources