DTE Ground Report: How toxic industrial gas killed 11 people in just 15 minutes in Ludhiana
Down To Earth reports from ground zero in Ludhiana’s Giaspura and goes behind the scenes to find out how the city manages its water, …
Why India’s celebrating World Water Day and Forest Day is a farce
Instead of salvaging these highly essential resources, our country is busy butchering them
Wannabe Backwards: Reservations and the Agrarian Crisis
India's influential farming communities demand to be branded poor and underprivileged. Down To Earth unearths the real story behind this growing …
Poisoned Punjab: DTE reports from state’s villages wracked by water pollution
Cancer and a host of other diseases afflict people living in the Fazilka, Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Muktsar districts of the state, DTE finds
‘In a world in which wildlife is so threatened, the Indus dolphin is a rare good news story’
Gill Braulik, who has been studying Indus River dolphins in Pakistan for over 15 years, speaks to Down To Earth about the future of the animal in …
Climate change: Crop yields in Punjab will fall by up to 13% in next 30 years
A study by Punjab Agricultural University used rainfall & temperature data from 35 years to project the impact of climate change on 5 major …
The Green Revolution and a dark Punjab
Punjab has paid a price for food security. The use of pesticides and fertilisers has resulted in a number of health issues for the state’s …
How farmers united in Punjab and Haryana during the 2023 floods
For every farmer whose crop has been ruined, there is another one who is sending him saplings from hundreds of kilometres away
From snake charmers to agricultural labourers: A case of Haryana’s Saperas
They still carry the stigma of being a de-notified tribe; also, the law prohibits the catching of snakes now, they say
Scanty rain in India’s largest state; kharif sowing hit in eastern UP
41 of 42 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, except Varanasi, are reeling under severe rain shortfall, India Meteorological Department has reported
Hottest March in 122 years damages wheat crop across North India
heat is a temperature-sensitive crop that requires a cool temperature, especially in March when it is at its final stage
Why potato means bad news in Punjab now
A cycle of misery kicked off by demonetisation still haunts farmers as well as cold storage owners
Why certain parts of India shone during the recently-concluded Asian Games
Reasons as varied as a strong farming culture. patriarchal tradition and geography influence why sportspersons from Haryana, Punjab and India's …
Punjab rushes to grant sand mining approvals
Clears environment management plans for 63 sites; mining officials cite shortage of construction material for show of haste
Punjab bats for direct seeding of rice. But will it help farmers?
Lack of migrant labourers in the wake of COVID-19-fuelled reverse migration has prompted state government to abandon traditional transplantation …
STPs in 3 Punjab towns lying defunct: NGT monitoring committee
Poor performance of sewage treatment plants due to delayed payment by municipal bodies, monitoring committee report to NGT
After broken dam wrecked this Punjab village twice, farmers decided to take matters into own hands
Overflowing Ghaggar river broke banks in July, destroyed Kharif paddy; villagers blame state government for disrepair
DTE Coverage: 2023 North India deluge
Down To Earth reports from the ground on why the hills and plains of northern India got inundated
Gharial seen in Pakistan’s Punjab after 3 decades; it likely crossed over from India
Gharials were reintroduced to the Beas river in 2017, having been extirpated in the Punjab region now divided between India and Pakistan
Har Gobind Khorana: The chemist who cracked DNA’s code and made the first artificial gene was born into poverty 100 years ago in an Indian village
Khorana’s legacy has also suffered from neglect that may be a result of racial bias. But this neglect is changing, as a new generation of …
Water for fruits: Why Abohar and Ganganagar’s citrus revolution needs encouragement
We need to build wealth from prudent and wise use of natural resources. Use scare water for fruit economy instead of paddy
Desertification in India: How Green Revolution hastened the man-made soil degradation
The biggest threat of desertification emanates from the major crops of the Green Revolution — wheat and paddy
No end to discrimination against Punjab’s Dalit women labourers, says study
A recent study examined 927 Dalit women labour households across four districts. A lot of them reeled under debt, faced sexual harassment
Indo-Pak study reveals extensive arsenic problem in Punjab groundwater
The study found that 23 per cent of the 30,567 wells they covered had arsenic content higher than the prescribed limit
Will centralised waste disposal work for Punjab?
Safe waste disposal is a big challenge for the national sanitation overdrive. Punjab has been experimenting with centralised systems to tackle …