Perception vs reality: Is free filtered water at restaurants a safe and plastic-free choice?
Priyanka Jamwal and Durba Biswas Citizen Matters | July 8, 2025 Across urban India, environmental awareness is increasing, and one of the ways people practise their commitment to minimise their environmental footprint is by reducing their plastic waste. In restaurants, where the sale of plastic bottles and free “filtered water” are both ubiquitous, the decision […]
Fighting antimicrobial resistance with insect-based livestock feed
Irfan Shakeer, Iswarya Lakshmi The Hindu | June 24, 2025 Studies show that the use of insectbased feed can be more costeffective because it provides better digestible proteins than fishor soybased feeds. It is also attractive because of its lower cost and the ease with which it can be made a sustainable act.
Trade Tariffs Close Borders but May Open Doors to Invasive Alien Species
M. Nobinraja, Priya Ranganathan The Hindu | June 19, 2025 Around 1847, in colonial Calcutta, an unexpected visitor arrived, likely hidden in plant crates or trade goods from East Africa. The giant African snail (Lissachatina fulica) entered India without fanfare, admired at first for its size and shell. But what seemed ornamental soon revealed itself […]
Photo Essay: Nine Ways of Seeing Deserts as Landscapes of Richness – Not Symbols of Failure
Anuja Malhotra, Abi Tamim Vanak, Chetan Misher Scroll | June 17, 2025 To many people, deserts they are often seen as barren, lifeless places – symbols of failure and decline. That perception has led to countless efforts to fix them through tree plantations, irrigation projects and sweeping development plans. But the urge to green the desert […]
Floods hit north-eastern States again, but climate planning is still missing
Rajkamal Goswami Frontline-Hindu | June 13, 2025 Floods in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram point to a glaring lack of plans to meet climate disasters, which are becoming the norm now.
India Needs to Embed Biodiversity as a Key Consideration in Every Decision
Asmita Sengupta, Vinod B Mathur The New Indian Express | June 9, 2025 The unprecedented loss of nature over the past few decades has induced a call for transformative change towards socially-just biodiversity conservation across the world. Transforming biodiversity safeguarding is not just about conservation, though — it is a systemic shift that integrates biodiversity […]
How Tamil Nadu’s green energy push in the Nilgiris undermines the Dravidian development model
Siddhartha Krishnan Scroll | June 5, 2025 Green energy is threatening Tamil Nadu’s greenest district – the Nilgiris. This irony brings into focus the paradoxes of Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian growth model: even as it ensures that the state has enviable development indicators, the sustainable energy projects that fuel it heighten the economic and ecological vulnerabilities […]
Navigating Floods in Bengaluru: a Natural Way Forward
Hymavathi P.,Priyanka Jamwal The Hindu | May 26, 2025 Urban flooding has become a persistent and growing challenge in Indian cities, with Bengaluru experiencing increasingly frequent and disruptive flood events. In 2024, Bengaluru faced severe floods with over 2,000 homes submerged citywide. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP) reported that 157 mm of rainfall was recorded in […]
Celebrating Rotti Habba in a Changing World
Prachi Kardam, Sathyapramodh H.B. The India Forum | May 23, 2025 Soligas are an indigenous, forest dwelling tribe of the Kaveri river basin and its adjoining hills in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu They have historically lived in these regions and have fought to reside in their ancestral home – the forest. To the Soligas, the forest […]
Addressing water scarcity in Maharashtra: Need for a policy shift
Vinay Sankar, Sachin Tiwale Idea for India | May 19, 2025 In the 1980s, Maharashtra played a pioneering role in promoting integrated watershed development to address water scarcity. In this post, Tiwale and Sankar contend that in recent years, the state has shifted to technocratic, quick-fix, and fragmented approaches to water management. They discuss two […]
