In court

Big idea

Monsoon vegetable jackfruit has caught the fancy of entrepreneurs in India, one of its biggest producers

Out of favour

Focus on Alphonso has resulted in neglect of native mango varieties grown in the Western Ghats, some of which are on the brink of extinction

Why do they raid crops?

Sometimes elephants raid crops even when there is a lot of food in the forests

Scared to leap

Amphibians in India are besieged by numerous threats

No return of the native

Implementation of Western Ghats reports will be stopped: CPI(M) manifesto

Green activists accuse party of not only stooping to garner votes but also playing to the tunes of industry lobby

Invasion of tiger reserve

Are religious pilgrimages only about faith and religion?

Bandh in Kerala against Kasturirangan panel report on Western Ghats

The report bans environment-damaging activities in 123 villages across 12 districts in the state

Kerala overlooks environmental aspects of proposed small hydropower plants

No information available on location of dams and whether the projects are in ecologically sensitive areas like the Western Ghats

Satellite Maps Forests

Jhum farming destroys forest cover in northeast India

Neutrino in elephant's way

The Kani learning

How benefit-sharing between a research institute and the Kani tribe went awry

View from the top

Planners must stop looking down at hill-stations

High risk

Problem: Tall buildings risky in high seismic zones; Status: Hill-stations are getting concretised and growing vertically; Challenge: Use local …

What goes down

Problem: Lack of space for garbage disposal; inadequate sewerage; Status: Garbage disposed on hill slopes ends in streams/rivers; Challenge: …

Defying gravity

Problem: Terrain forbids water supply systems that work in plains; Status: Water crisis in peak season every year; Challenge: Develop …

Local travails

Problem: Tourist influx too large; earnings flow downhill; Status: Residents forced to share meagre facilities with tourists; Challenge: Regulate …

Kerala's Periyar Tiger Reserve is a butterfly hot spot, finds survey

Reserve has 246 of 340 species seen in the Western Ghats

Travails of a waterscape

Hubballi-Ankola railway line will augur desertification, water crisis, warn experts

The proposed 164-kilometre railway project cutting through Western Ghats will prompt deforestation and accelerate climate change …

Conflicts are no less around national parks, sanctuaries

First-of-its-kind study in India carried out in Karnataka finds number of villages affected by human-elephant conflict and the compensation paid …

Saseendran’s ‘tiger cull’: Kerala forest minister made a gaffe; but state’s human-wildlife conflict needs redressal

Removing invasive plants, restoring vanishing wildlife corridors and eco-restoration inside forests should be the solution to human-wildlife …

Too cut & dried

Does the style of conserving forests currently dominant in India require an overhaul? Yes, say state governments and affected people. ruksan …

Western Ghats: lessons in protection