Mariangela Hungria. | Photo Credit: World Food Prize via AP A Brazilian scientist who pushed back against the use of chemical fertilisers and studied biological approaches to more robust food production has been honoured with this year’s World Food Prize, the organisation announced on May 13. Microbiologist Mariangela Hungria has been researching biological seed and … Read more
The Indian yak in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Specialists from four institutions of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have assembled the first-ever chromosome-level genome of the Indian yak. The Indian yak (Bos grunniens), often called the ‘ship of the Himalayas’, is an integral part of the economy … Read more
A fruit seller shades herself with an umbrella in intense heat at Sangareddy, Telangana. | Photo Credit: Mohd Arif On May 12, 17 districts of Andhra Pradesh recorded temperature above 41º C, with the A.P. State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) saying heatwave-like conditions are set to prevail in the northern districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Paravathipuram-Manyam … Read more
Climate change is reshaping the world — and perhaps nowhere more so than in the wild. As ecosystems change, species are forced to move to new locations in search of the resources they need to live. Unlike some human-made borders that are visible as fences and walls, the wild at large has numerous borders invisible … Read more
Migratory birds in V Formation, travel over long distances Just like how takeoff and landing are crucial for an airplane, the same applies to birds. Migratory birds often fly in a V-shape, a process known as bird flight. This unique movement is guided by the principles of aerodynamics, specifically lift and drag, helping them travel … Read more
‘Future conservation efforts should be designed to strengthen our emotional bond with nature’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto The phrase, “Ecology is the permanent economy”, made popular by environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, is much more than a slogan. It is a profound reminder of the foundational truth that human prosperity is inextricably linked to ecological health. … Read more
The story so far: After a decade of deliberations towards decarbonising the maritime industry, at its 83rd session, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC-83) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) was faced with the challenge of coming to a consensus on a proposed emissions levy on global shipping. The session’s objective was to adopt a … Read more
Formed over millions of years ago, Maharashtra’s Konkan region’s lateritic plateaus, called ‘sadas’ in Marathi, are home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. These plateaus support unique freshwater rock pools that are formed due to erosion and weathering over a period of time and are critical frog breeding habitats. A paper titled: ‘Effects … Read more
Draped in a blue pattu sari, gold chains around her neck and ears heavy with jewellery, 60-year-old Rangamma of Hothi B. village in Telangana’s Medak district still carries the quiet dignity of a woman who once believed she had a stake in change. Seated on the low wall of a village well, she opens her … Read more
The per capita standard, combined with population figures, is used to compute the domestic water demand of a city. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu 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 … Read more
India’s journey toward Viksit Bharat is being powered by a rapid digital transformation, with an increasing reliance on electronic devices. From smartphones and laptops to advanced industrial and medical equipment, technology has become the backbone of economic growth, connectivity and innovation. However, this growing dependence on electronic devices has a by-product — electronic waste (e-waste) … Read more
A Mount Augustus snail laying an egg through its neck in Hokitika, New Zealand. | Photo Credit: AFP The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation … Read more
Green Humour | Photo Credit: Rohan Chakravarty Rohan Chakravarty is a cartoonist and illustrator from Nagpur. His series, ‘Green Humour’, consists of cartoons and comics on wildlife, nature conservation, environmental issues, sustainability, and all things green. Green Humour | Photo Credit: Rohan Chakravarty Published – May 12, 2025 12:15 pm IST
The specimen at the Indian Museum. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement An infructescence of about 4.2 metres has been recorded in a species of wild banana from Andaman and Nicobar islands, making it the longest infructescence recorded in bananas across the world. The details of the discovery were published in an international peer reviewed science … Read more
A “Say no to polythene” sign next to a trash can in Nako village, Himachal Pradesh, 2010. Representative image. | Photo Credit: John Hill (CC BY-SA) Single-use food and beverage packaging forms more than 84% of the plastic waste in the eco-sensitive Himalayan region, an anti-waste collective of NGOs has found. According to the Zero … Read more
GUWAHATI A youth organisation has opposed an ecotourism development project in Meghalaya’s Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, citing a potential threat to its delicate ecosystem. In a letter submitted to the State’s Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife) and the Director of Wildlife Preservation on May 6, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) called for scrapping the planned … Read more
In the first week of April 2025, Delhi crossed a dangerous threshold: the temperature soared above 41°C, and nights offered little relief. These extreme conditions are no longer outliers but part of a new, deadly normal. With climate change intensifying year after year, Indian cities have become the epicentre of a growing crisis. And while … Read more
According to the Zero Waste Himalaya Alliance, about 70% of the plastics collected from across the Himalayan belt are non-recyclable. File photo: Special Arrangement GUWAHATI Single-use food and beverage packaging forms more than 84% of the plastic waste in the eco-sensitive Himalayan region, an anti-waste collective of NGOs has found. According to the Zero Waste … Read more
We are pushing the ocean to absorb more than it naturally can: Dr. Sambuddha Misra | The Hindu Huddle 2025 We are pushing the ocean to absorb more than it naturally can: Dr. Sambuddha Misra | The Hindu Huddle 2025 | Video Credit: The Hindu From the impact of Donald Trump’s election as U.S. President … Read more
People go into the sea to swim, Rosalind Pereira observes. “Then they discard their clothes on the beach and get into new clothes.” For the co-founder of Project Aamhi, a community waste management effort that enables people in 17 coastal Maharashtra villages to keep their neighbourhoods and beaches clean, this peculiar swimming habit sparked an … Read more
What is a bird? Textbook definitions would say ‘warm-blooded vertebrates that have feathers, toothless, beaked jaws and lay hard-shelled eggs’. But there is much more to them — their lives have enough drama, adventure, danger and romance to put a movie script to shame. And when you start looking at them closely, you realise there … Read more
Heading into the hills of Kodaikanal in the middle of balmy April was already a treat. Then, to sit on the lush grounds of a boutique hotel with nearly 150 people, the cool air speckled with a light drizzle, listening to ‘Music from the Mountains to the Skies’, was simply magical. The unique concert held … Read more
Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important food crops in the world. Representative image. | Photo Credit: Sandy Ravaloniaina/Unsplash Scientists have assembled a first of its kind ‘pangenome’, a kind of reference genome, by stitching together key parts of genomes from 144 varieties of wild and cultivated varieties of rice … Read more
Climate-driven food shortage and undernourishment could affect the composition of the human gut microbiota, exacerbating the effects of climate change on human health, according to a new review article published in The Lancet Planetary Health. The article comes on the heels of a growing number of studies that highlight the key role food and nutrition … Read more
In 2016, when Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo at the University of Granada in Spain met Kaspar Delhey, an expert in bird coloration at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, a new collaboration was born. “He suggested we study whether urbanisation is associated with differences in bird coloration,” Delhey said. Many studies have investigated how urban … Read more
Deepavali celebrations in New Delhi. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Supreme Court on Tuesday (May 6, 2025) directed the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana to ensure a “scrupulous” ban on firecrackers in areas falling under the NCR region and warned any failure would attract contempt. A Bench of Justices Abhay S. … Read more
Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, the biggest of the three sanctuaries in Goa. | Photo Credit: Paul Noronha Goa is often seen as a prime tourist destination rather than an ecological hotspot. A study, ‘Insights into the linkages of forest structure dynamics with ecosystem services’, published on May 4 in the journal Nature, however, evaluated the … Read more
Livestock farmers of 21 villages near Guwahati have opposed the Assam government’s move to transform a large chunk of grazing land adjoining an ecologically fragile wetland into a logistics park. On April 7, the Kamrup District Commissioner’s office issued a notification proposing the acquisition of 150 bighas, or 49.59 acres, of the Dorabeel grazing field … Read more
In many parts of the world, conservation laws and policies are becoming more exclusionary. They are disenfranchising local communities and indigenous people, disregarding their rights and role in conservation, and allowing the state as well as private interests to exploit resources. Conservation science and its legal frameworks are rooted in colonial ideas, and define nature … Read more
