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 […]
Kathalekan Myristica Swamp: A Paradise (Nearly) Lost
Priya Ranganathan Jalaplavit | May 16, 2025 Named after its dominant tree family, Myristicaceae (wild nutmeg), this ancient swamp ecosystem is home to towering trees that date back to the formation of the Western Ghats. These trees have developed arching roots to withstand year-round waterlogging, a hallmark of their unique adaptation.
When Water Standards Don’t Hold Water
Sachin Tiwale The Hindu | May 13, 2025 How much water should a person receive each day? In India, this question is not answered by science or necessity, but by an arbitrary metric — the per capita water supply standard, prescribed in litres per capita per day (lpcd). While the human right to water guarantees […]
Eating Under Stress? Not for These Lizards!
Seshadri K. S. Deccan Herald | May 10, 2025 Stress, simply put, is any nonspecific response of the body to any demand placed upon it and is therefore a coping mechanism. Free-ranging animals must dodge predators, grow up, attract mates, and leave offspring behind. All this comes at a tradeoff, costing energy and resources while […]
Unlocking the Potential of Wild and Naturalized Edible Fruits
Prasanna N. S. Vijay Karnataka Kannada daily | May 9, 2025 Wild edible fruits offer significant ecological and economic benefits. Just over a century ago, the Kiwi fruit was a lesser-known wild edible fruit in China, but today, it has grown into a billion-dollar market. India is home to many such underexplored fruit tree species. […]
Protecting Hesaraghatta
Mahesh Bhat and Seshadri K.S. Sanctuary Asia | may 01, 2025 On October 7, 2024, the State Board for Wildlife of Karnataka made a historic decision to protect over 5,000 acres of land, a sprawling expanse of green and blue just north of Bengaluru. We remember the excitement that spread when we learned that this […]
What lessons should we learn from the water tanker strike in Mumbai?
Sachin Tiwale Loksatta | April 28, 2025 Mumbai’s heavy dependence on water tankers and groundwater was highlighted once again during a recent tanker strike. The article argues for the inclusion of groundwater in the city’s urban water planning, which has been ignored for decades by planners and engineers. The proposed bureaucratic regulation of groundwater—limited to […]
Towards Sustainable Lakes: Lessons From Restoration Efforts
Priyanka Jamwal Bangalore Mirror | April 23, 2025 Bengaluru, once called as the ‘City of Lakes’, is now confronted by multiple environmental challenges, with environmental degradation as one of the pressing concerns. Rapid urbanization and inadequate wastewater treatment infrastructure have resulted in rapid degradation of urban lakes. Approximately 50% of the water entering the lakes […]
