SOUR SAGA

EASIER ACCESS TO TENDER CHICKPEA GREENS WILL HELP PROMOTE THIS NUTRITIOUS FOOD

FIRST SHOT

The death of eight people and hesitancy among health workers mar the first phase of India’s vaccination drive against COVID-19

The Forests We Forgot

Huge swathes of forestland have been declared reserve forests but never notified since the colonial era, leaving thousands of people encroachers on their own land for generations. For them, it is a perennial existence of uncertainty. ISHAN KUKRETI travels to several villages across JHARKHAND, ANDHRA PRADESH AND MADHYA PRADESH to find how government failure, both at the Centre and the states, is hurting the communities and forests alike

Stem pepper

THE WOODY STEMS OF CHUI OOZE FIERY FLAVOURS

SO, WHO BLINKS FIRST

Recent mutations in COVID-19 virus have complicated the fight against the pandemic. Can we win?

Let it flow

The scientific community has rolled out plans to remove hurdles in the shift to open access publishing. Will this ensure equitable access?

Two of a kind

India has lost two environmental crusaders who embodied the spirit of conservation

What's in a name?

INDIA’S WILDLIFE LAW HAS NOT INCORPORATED NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND UNDERSTANDINGS, WHICH IS LEADING TO CONFUSION AND CHAOS IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Are we there yet?

Model villages are still far from the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022

Lesser pandemic?

A new viral infection in cattle sweeps across India, threatening one of the largest rural economies

‘We hardly lived before we died'

PANDEMICS IN THE PAST HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD ORDER. WILL COVID-19 DO THE SAME?

Araku's pioneer

A tribal farmer in Andhra Pradesh got the best of both worlds when he combined natural farming with his wisdom from shifting cultivation

Question Of Ecological Identity

ISHAN KUKRETI speaks to a legislator, an anthropologist and legal experts to make sense of this simmering debate

2020 Endless Fallouts

COVID-19 has turned the clock back in terms of global health and development indices. The recovery will be long and arduous for a world facing climate change on an unprecedented scale. Indicators are already there that the year ahead will be turbulent

Sting operation

One of India’s worst malaria-affected districts, Malkangiri in Odisha, is on its way to win the fight against this scourge

The great discontent

Farmers delivered the country’s historic harvest bucking the pandemic in 2020. But the year also broke all records of their protests as they demand fair price and access to markets

Fungal attack in apple orchards across the valley

WIDESPREAD FUNGAL infection is set to hit apple production in Kashmir this season.

SHRINKING WORLD OF CHANGPAS

The Changpas are trans-Himalayan nomads. For ages, they have roamed the Changthang region of southeastern Ladakh, cut off from the world. Some accounts say they travelled across the Himalayas to arrive here around the 8th century. Located at an altitude of 4,500 metres, life in this arid, vast and rugged plateau is hard. Winters are very long, summers short and vegetation scarce. As a result, the Changpas have led a pastoral life. They rear Changthangi goat, from whose under coat comes the famous pashmina wool. The goats graze on the mountainsides, feeding on seasonal grasses. The weather, however, has changed in the past few decades. The winters and summers are warmer, and there is a perceptive decline in precipitation and snowfall between November and March. This has drastically reduced the size of the grazing grounds and the Changpas now have to shift locations more frequently. RITAYAN MUKHERJEE captures the changing lifestyle of the Changpas

Collateral damage

India’s latest plan to save its vultures from dying due to drugs used on cattle offers little hope

PURE TRASH

THE GOVERNMENT’S NEW PROPOSAL ON EXTENDED PRODUCER’S RESPONSIBILITY ON PLASTIC WASTE IS A MOCKERY OF THE COVID-19 REALITY WE FACE TODAY

Gated farming societies

An agritech startup in Bengaluru is helping city dwellers own and manage farms for long-term wealth benefits

We need pure honey

It is time we outwitted the business of adulteration. This requires government to act decisively. It needs industry to be made responsible. It needs consumers to be made aware of the purity of the honey they consume. This demands change

When we spiked honey with Chinese and Indian 'all-pass' syrups

If the samples passed the tests for purity, it would show that such syrups worked

Leads to China

Tracking down the imported syrup being used for honey adulteration

Panchayat Incorporated

Twenty20, which established a corporate panchayat in Kerala in 2015, is expanding its realm during the local body polls this year. How sustainable is the option? JINOY JOSE P KOCHI, KERALA

Indian passage for adulteration

Manufacturing of adulterant syrups has begun closer home

THE HONEY TRAP

INVESTIGATION INTO THE BUSINESS OF ADULTERATION OF HONEY

LABORATORY TESTS OF HONEY WE CONSUME

HONEY WHICH PASSED INDIAN STANDARDS FAILED WHEN TESTED USING EQUIPMENT THAT CAN DETECT MODIFIED SUGAR SYRUP

Immunity booster or buster?

What makes honey special and why honey adulterated with sugar is bad

How we broke honeygate

An undercover operation to contact Chinese sellers of sugar syrup brought to light the shady business