CATEGORIES

The Real Weed

There's a little bit of glyphosate in everyone's body. Glyphosate's weed-killing properties were accidentally discovered 20 years after the chemical was first synthesised. Today, it is omnipresent across the world. The WHO says it causes cancer and studies link it to many diseases. Countries have been struggling to ban or restrict its use due to pressure from the industry and farmer groups. But a new movement to ban this chemical as well as to find alternatives is gaining ground. VIBHA VARSHNEY tracks the toxic trail

Kicking Up A Stink

India has been dragging its feet over abating odour pollution. Does it lack in infrastructure, or will?

Gearing Up For Space Wars

Space is becoming the new destination for weaponisation and world dominance with the United States leading the charge

Cut The Noose

The worst affected in India's farm crisis are small, marginal and tenant farmers. It's time to strengthen their hands

Cautiously Modern

Indonesia's 600-year-old paddy-growing community has embraced modern lifestyle while preserving ancient traditions

Popeye Would Like It

Tree spinach, or chayamansa, is nothing less than a superfood for humans as well as livestock

Speaking Trees

In Around the World in 80 Trees, JONATHAN DRORI brings out the unsung botanical heroes out of their recondite existence. He describes their geographical phylogeny, ecological services, and most importantly, their sociological importance. In fact, it is the human stories of myths and beliefs around their flora that make the book so extraordinary. He speaks to S S JEEVAN.

The Trick Is In The Treaty Text

When rich nations insist on patent linkage provisions in bilateral and regional trade pacts here is a way out

Casting A change

Young entrepreneurs see opportunity in biomass waste, help India curb air and plastic pollution

Climate Champions

Youths are rejecting cushy jobs perceived as harmful for the environment

Sweet Cousin

It is a little-known vegetable called meetha karela that grows abundantly in the hills of Uttarakhand

Star Collision

How scientists solved a centuries-old mystery

Up In Arms

Shrinking of the world's largest desert lake has triggered a survival battle among nomadic tribes in the Kenyan-Ethiopian border. JITENDRA travels across Kenya's Turkana county to see how climate change and human activities have led to the crisis

Under Siege

India's demand for teak wood is endangering Ecuador's rainforests and agricultural land ISHAN KUKRETI | New Delhi 

No More Horsing Around

Glanders, a bacterial, zoonotic disease that affects equines and is a potential biological weapon, has been breaking out regularly across India since 2006. Should India be worried? RAJAT GHAI | New Delhi 

Is Activism The Cure?

As prices of life-saving drugs skyrocket, people from diverse fields are getting together to fight Big Pharma

Pitfalls Outweigh Potential

Government is pushing for biofuel production to reduce crude import bill. Can it steer clear of the food versus fuel dilemma?

Unholy Chase

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made cleaning of the Ganga again a high priority national agenda. He had the advantage of learning from the failures of the past 30 years in cleaning the national river. And he had the missionary zeal to proclaim a deadline for doing so. A year before his promise of a clean Ganga in 2019, the river is far from being so. In many stretches it is dirtier than before. An analysis by BANJOT KAUR on why the river will remain polluted despite river-friendly budgets and politically correct rhetoric

The Wake Up Call

THE UNITED Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) consists of scientists who can by no stretch of the imagination be called radical or activists.

A Contentious Solicitation

India's most ambitious health insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, is definitely a lure. Millions of Indians bleed to pay their ever-increasing medical expenses in private healthcare and end up becoming even poorer. Experiences of public-funded health insurance schemes in the last decade show that these initiatives have not been effective as they are not supported by the proportionate creation of public health systems. India simply doesn't have enough well-equipped public health infrastructure. So what does this new scheme mean for millions of poor and sick people? KUNDAN PANDEY travels to Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana and Kerala to understand what the new scheme needs to be cautious about.

Dormant Breakthrough

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

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

Politicisation Of Rights

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

`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

Jamdani, Naturally

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

Agenda For 2019

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

Love's Labour

The traditional dishes that pregnant women eat for centuries

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

No Worries? Ask Simba

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

Unfair Trade Laws Can Put A Spanner In Our Quest For A Circular Economy

USED Recycle and reuse of products make great economic and environmental sense. But will circular economy benefit the world at a time when economic giants like the US are using trade sanctions to bully Rwanda, which has banned used clothing? India too is at the risk of becoming the rich world's dumpyard