Who Is Economically Secular?

The rich have the chance to get richer in an economic crisis, while the poor face the prospect of sinking deeper in poverty

Trial After Error

AGROCHEMICAL AND biotech giant Monsanto’s genetically modified cotton seed business is out of trouble in India; but only for the time being.

The Fast Track To Disaster

India's decision to start a patent prosecution highway for Japanese firms could open the tollgates to hasty approvals

Good Old Sap

Gums secreted by trees are a treasure trove of nutrition and have been used by communities in making seasonal delicacies

Conflict Of Diet

It's not just fragmented corridors that take elephants to farms. They get drawn towards crops that improve their state of mind and well-being

Sulabha Chakravarty

August 15, 1963 – August 19, 2018)

Trapping To Protect

The Camera as a Conservation Tool.

The Sanctuary Interview - Meet Pankaj Sharma

It would be an understatement to say that Pankaj Sharma is a brave and unassuming man. Part of a crack defence team that quite literally entrusted their lives with each other, they hit back at rhino poachers who had taken to killing rhinos in Kaziranga, virtually unchallenged, in the late 1980s. Rhino deaths dropped dramatically and the Kaziranga we see today was in no small measure a result of their do-or-die determination.A stickler for the law, he was content to stay a Forest Ranger for decades, unwilling to trade forest life for a desk job in Guwahati. Still a field man, he is currently the Divisional Forest Officer in charge of the Nameri Tiger Reserve. Bittu Sahgal met him recently at Nameri and had to quite literally coerce this quiet, self-effacing man to speak about himself.

The Numbers Game

When a species begins to overwhelm its resource base, it is destined to go down. Having decided as a young woman of child-bearing age not to bring a child into this world, Purva Variyar asks whether Homo sapiens is headed down that road.

The Cranes Come Home Again To The Pangchen Valley!

The excitement in Degin Dorjee’s voice was palpable as he shared the news of the arrival of Black-necked Cranes at their wintering site along the Nyamjang Chhu river this winter.

Thanal

More than three decades ago, in 1986, a small group of nature enthusiasts based in the southern state of Kerala in India were inspired to share their love for nature by helping people to become more environmentally aware and pro-active.

Photography As Art

Across the world fine art is taking huge strides towards the goal of stimulating and influencing public opinion in favour of nature conservation. Shaaz Jung, a talented young Indian wildlife photographer, is a pioneer in this field, and he uses his wildlife photographs, enhanced by digital imagery, to augment their impact. In his view, this will bring in new pools of support from artists whose creativity could help turn the tide, by attracting hitherto untapped potential for the critical task of saving our vanishing wilds.

No Worries? Ask Simba

A furore over Disney's trademark on the Swahili phrase Hakuna Matata heats up the cultural appropriation debate

Worshipped And Abandoned

The circular economy of cattle has been ruptured. Restrictions on cattle trade are forcing cattle rearers to abandon the cows, and therefore, their livelihood. Jitendra and photographer Adithyan P C travel across the cow belt in the country and neighbouring Nepal to understand how it has hit the poorest

Try Some Salt, Fresh And Seasoned

Uttarakhand's age-old flavoured salts loaded with micronutrients are not only a healthy option, but can also tickle your taste buds

Reign Over Rain

Rainfall deficit can be a challenge as well as an opportunity. Last year, Dhanbad faced a rainfall deficit of 60 per cent. EKLAVYA PRASAD narrates his personal experience of catching rainwater where it falls in his home, Uttarayan. By constructing rainwater harvesting structures, Uttarayan not only showed the way to address urban water scarcity, it also helped recharge groundwater with 1.06 million litres of rainwater

Love's Labour

The traditional dishes that pregnant women eat for centuries

Jamdani, Naturally

How the women of Burdwan and Nadia districts in West Bengal weave magic, turning raw cotton into niche and `climate-friendly' Jamdani

Corridor Catharsis

The proposed Similipal-Satkosia wildlife corridor in Odisha can be connecting link for the survival of endangered species. But mining activities need to be eliminated

Anthropocene In The Arctic

A behind the scenes account of how the scientific community came to terms with the changing landscape of the Arctic

Agenda For 2019

The governance blueprint to combat major environmental problems must be institutionalised and strictly enforced

`Capital Lies With A Few, Power With The Masses'

Soon after Independence, a good 350 newspapers started as a cooperative venture. But only Janmorcha, published from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, has managed to survive. Its editor SHEETLA SINGH fearlessly wages a battle against the government which has made five attempts to shut the newspaper down. ANIL ASHWANI SHARMA spoke to the 87-year-old sentinel of cooperative journalism about the perils of newspaper publishing in the country

Wild And Nutritious

Gaithi, a tuber variety that grows in the hills of Uttarakhand, has both nutritive and medicinal properties

Fault Lines In Expressway

Construction of Char Dham national highway has cost Uttarakhand its ecological balance, as ISHAN KUKRETI discovers in his 250 km travel through the devasted terrain

The Right Pill

Africa will be setting up its first agency to check the spread of spurious drugs

Politicisation Of Rights

What impedes the Forest Rights Act, 2006, from being implemented in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve in West Bengal?

Listen... Plants Too Speak

As early as in 1880, Charles Darwin demonstrated that plants could sense light, moisture, gravity, pressure and possessed several other qualities. Over the years, many scientists have proved that plants are sentient beings and move and respond to sensation. The subject is still controversial among the scientific community. Monica Gagliano is research associate professor of evolutionary ecology and former fellow of the Australian Research Council who has pioneered a brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics. In her latest book, Thus Spoke the Plant: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants, she, for the first time, has experimentally demonstrated that plants emit their own ªvoicesº and detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. In these excerpts, Gagliano writes about how the pea plant responds to acoustic vibrations to locate water

Dormant Breakthrough

Scientists are working on induced human hibernation, as seen naturally in animals, to treat a range of diseases

Zika's Unborn Victims

As India fights its first Zika outbreak, BANJOT KAUR travels to the virus-hit districts of VIDISHA and BHOPAL in MADHYA PRADESH and finds a grievously unprepared response system

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