CoP-8: Nothing's brewing

For a fortnight, 1,456 delegates from 167 countries sat in conference halls, attended plenary sessions and roundtables, and sized each other up …

From barrels to battlefields

Today, it is oil politics that dictates international relations and alliances. Several international conflicts in recent years have been sparked …

Water woes in wet Kerala

More than 2,000 mm of rain in 2003 but crops destroyed and farmers committing suicide; crores spent on 31 irrigation projects but villages going …

Saga of two villages

Sukhomajri was a dirt-poor village in Haryana. It started pulling itself out of its hole in the late 1970s, making a dizzying ascent to …

Poor enforcement, weak laws make poaching an easy game

Salman Khan might be in the arclights because of his poaching misadventures. But many people routinely get away with killing protected animals; …

India must focus on rainfed farming

There was a time when it was said that the Indian budget was a gamble on the monsoons. That is not the case any more, with industrial production …

Central India in grip of worst-ever drought

Astray?

From the Gir National Park in Gujarat to the Sunderbans in West Bengal, lions and tigers are ranging far beyond territories administered by the …

No Escape

A recent US study has conclusive evidence on the deadly nature of fine particulate matter in the air. These unseen particles, mostly emitted by …

Ladakh on the move

Ladakh is the one region in India where sustainable development is the only way ahead. Dry toilets, water efficient crops, cooperative farming, a …

Damodar - Ten years after

How has the river that flows through one of the most industrialised regions in India fared since it was first written about in 1993? Down to …

The small big polluter

Small-scale industries: Where regulations are meaningless and pollution control an unaffordable luxury. Can they leapfrog to cost-effective …

Ecologically mindless

The flush toilet system and the sewage system, which goes with modern day personal hygiene and cleanliness, are part of the environmental problem …

Field day

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

Climate change conference- World leaders fail to act again

The 12th Conference of Parties to the UN climate convention saw the setting up of an adaptation fund to help poor countries. Ritu Gupta …

30,000 farmers demand Hirakud dam water

Western Orissa is witnessing an upheaval. In the eye of the storm is the Hirakud dam. Over 300,000 farmers dependent on its water for irrigation …

Food processing industry takes a toll on country's health

Eating at home isn’t the in thing anymore. Hanging out is hip, especially in the mushrooming fast food joints that blister the skylines of …

When Vishnu sleeps

Clash of the cyberworlds

In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …

By hook, crook or vision

Profits and a cleaner environment can sometimes complement each other. But Indian companies are still mired in poison. They must now look for a …

Small car revolution Who cares about congestion, pollution

The ultra-cheap small cars in the pipeline will tilt the skewed balance against public transport and two-wheelers irretrievably. The result will …

Meaning of 'forest' set to change in India

How should a 'forest' be defined in India? The Union ministry of environment and forests is currently preoccupied with this question. Placing …

Private vehicles eating into scare public land

Private vehicles are clogging city streets, as they grow at a frightening pace. Hidden subsidies help park them on scarce public land and …

Rising sea levels and tidal erosion eating up Sunderbans

Rising sea levels are real. A trip to the Sunderbans, in the Bay of Bengal, shows how devastating it can be in tandem with insidious tidal erosion.…

Sponge iron industries are killing fields

The sponge iron industry is growing fast and polluting alarmingly. K Radhika in Chhattisgarh and Maureen Nandini Mitra in Jharkhand and Orissa …