CATEGORIES

Easy targets

High-income nations across the world appear focused on agriculture as the sector to enforce emissions cut for meeting national climate goals

Bt's takedown

The worst pink bollworm attack in over two decades in north India raises question over the efficacy of Bt cotton in fighting the pest it was created to resist. As the attacks become regular and severe, cultivators quit cotton farming en masse, reports

India extends sugar export curbs

CONCERNED OVER the rising prices and the impact of a weak monsoon on sugarcane crops, India has extended curbs on exports of sugar beyond October.

Watch and earn

An initiative to protect the Sinhagad fort and forest in Maharashtra also helps people earn a livelihood

How companies got their way on biodiversity

Amendments to the Biodiversity Act let companies off the hook on having to share the benefits of using biological resources

Flood-proof Himalayas

Spatial planning, nature-based solutions can make cities in Hindu Kush Himalaya climate-resilient

RAINY RAJASTHAN

The harsh deserts of Rajasthan bear testimony to human adaptability and ingenuity. They receive just 300 mm of annual rain, making Rajasthan India's driest state. Yet they are home to a third of the state's population and, by some estimates, the most populous deserts in the world.

Hybrid takeover

DALJIT SINGH usually harvests 10 tonnes of rice from his 1.5-hectare farmland. But in 2022, the yield was just 1.9 tonnes. Most of the crop was dwarfed due to a Fiji virus infection. \"I had used hybrid seeds manufactured by German company Bayer.

Sterile measure

Maharashtra and Gujarat propose to sterilise leopards to control their booming population, amid rising conflicts between the animal and humans. Is the plan feasible?

BLATANT VIOLATIONS

India's flagship health insurance scheme for the poor remains riddled with irregularities and corruption, shows an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India

SANITATION CRUSADER

Bindeshwar Pathak's steadfast determination improved the state of public sanitation in India

Decoding organic

“FOR THE past three years, my tomato crop has not been infested by a single pest. I have got a healthy and sizable yield. My spinach, too, has flourished,” says Kamraj of Govindapuram village in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu.

BOOKS

Book Review

Climate Change Behind July Heat

ANTHROPOGENIC EMISSIONS made the heatwaves seen in North America and Europe 1,000 times more likely, according to latest analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA).

World of the gazer

For editor, author and bibliographer Aasheesh Pittie, birdwatching is a lifelong philosophical pursuit rather than a pastime. His latest book, The living air: The pleasures of birds and birdwatching, is a set of essays on his birding journey, written over 30 years. Excerpts:

Waterborne monster

A lethal marine bacterium, Vibrio vulnificus, could become a major threat to coastal populations, with warmer oceans and high rainfall creating ideal condition for its proliferation

HOW ROBUST IS INDIA'S TIGER CENSUS

During the 50th anniversary celebrations of Project Tiger on April 9 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the animal's population in India had increased to 3,167. Less than four months later, on July 29, a new set of numbers were released that pegged the population at 3,682 tigers; over 500 more than the April estimate. This has sparked debates over the accuracy of tiger census. RAJAT GHAI speaks to government officials and independent experts to decode the riddle of tiger estimation:

ROAD TO CITY COOL

Urban India is a heat trap, but road orientation, building materials and zone-specific master plans can drastically enhance thermal comfort

Frittering away Nehru's momentous legacy

India initiated production of critical drugs in 1951 with the aid of UN bodies to keep out patent blocks-a model we have forgotten

Plastic solutions

India needs robust data, along with recycling infrastructure to curb plastic pollution in rural India

17 MILLION MISSING

India has missed as many as 16.84 million artificial inseminations of cattle and buffaloes during the two years of COVID-19 pandemic, shows an analysis by Down To Earth. This is likely to have a long-lasting impact on the country's milk production. An analysis by SHAGUN

On the precipice

A collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation may put other climate systems at risk

Forests up for grabs?

The amended Forest Conservation Act opens up large swathes of forestland for different non-forest activities

SAPLING SOLIDARITY

Punjab and Haryana are witnessing a first-of-its-kind farmer solidarity movement. Cultivators in flood-hit villages of the states have received free supply of paddy saplings from their counterparts in safer areas to tide over the losses and avoid a crop-less rice season. RAJU SAJWAN travels to the two states to document the help initiative.

Silent saviour

A single-handed mission to ensure that Kashmir's majestic chinar trees do not disappear from its landscape

Sum Of All Fears

The first fortnight of July saw a breach of climate records of thousands of years, clearly showing that the global climate crisis is now a cataclysm. A report by KIRAN PANDEY, AKSHIT SANGOMLA, ARYA RAJU, ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY, RAJU SAJWAN and PULAHA ROY DELHI

CEMENTING POSSIBILITIES

After water, cement is the most widely used material on the planet. It is also the second largest industrial emitter of carbon dioxide. Little wonder the sector is a priority target for decarbonisation to meet India' climate commitments. But the very nature of cement production makes elimination of carbon emissions a difficult, if not impossible, task. Here is a step-by-step strategy to turn this carbon-intensive industry into a carbon-lean one.

'So many problems with the Anthropocene definition'

The world recently got closer to accepting that it is in the Anthropocene-the age of humans. On July 28, the Anthropocene Working Group, set up in 2009 by a UNESCO subcommission to assess geological \"reality\" and the most suitable timing of the epoch's beginning, announced 1950 to be the starting year. The group's study on a dozen sites found the presence of radionuclides, especially plutonium, in geological materials of early 1950s, showing the impact of nuclear tests by nations in the period, and indicating a date to mark the transformative effect humanity has had on Earth's ecology and climate. While the final acceptance of the Anthropocene Epoch is subject to its ratification at the International Geological Congress in South Korea next year, author AMITAV GHOSH is conflicted about the development. At the launch of his book, Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey Through Opium's Hidden Histories, in Delhi, Ghosh talks to RAJAT GHAI about the problems in the framing of the issue, the narrowness of the definition, the missing voices and histories in the narrative, and his latest book. Excerpts:

DON'T SHIFT THE CONFLICT

Translocating elephants from their home range does not end the human-animal conflict, but intensifies it

A NEW ERA FOR INDIAN RESEARCH?

The Union Cabinet on June 28 approved introduction of the National Research Foundation Bill, 2023, in the Parliament. The Bill aims to facilitate setting up of the National Research Foundation (NRF), as recommended by the National Education Policy 2020, to foster better research and innovation in the country. NRF will be governed by a board presided by the prime minister, while its functions will be overseen by an executive council chaired by the country's principal scientific advisor. The government has announced a budget of ₹50,000 crore for NRF over the next five years, more than half of which it plans to raise from public sector enterprises, industries and international research organisations. What do these proposals mean for the future of research and development in India, where investment and engagement of human capital in the sector is among the lowest in the world? ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY speaks to scientists and academics about their expectations from the NRF Bill as well as about their concerns.