In its first updated Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in August 2022, India has committed to first, adopting a climate-friendly and cleaner path to economic development; second, reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 from the 2005 level, and third, … Read more
Tourists are seen at snow-covered ski resort, Gulmarg, on February 11, 2025. | Photo Credit: IMRAN NISSAR The second leg of the 5th Khelo India Winter Games, scheduled to begin in Gulmarg on Saturday (February 17, 2025), has been postponed due to insufficient snowfall in the region. The new dates for the event will be … Read more
A Baillon’s crake at Perumbakkam wetland on February 12, 2025. Photo: Prince Frederick | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK As humans are christened around birth, before their character becomes manifest and their frame takes complete shape, there is always the possibility that their name might suggest the opposite of what the people around them largely perceive … Read more
“Last year, we lost two of our men to poachers,” Samrat Gowda, deputy director of the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, said. “Every time we come across them, the poachers are armed with a loaded gun.” But such encounters have become much less common of late. As part of an early alert system called TrailGuard … Read more
Sewage water mixing with Pazhayar river at Ozhuginasery in Nagercoil. | Photo Credit: A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN The rampant disposal of sewage into Pazhayar river poses a significant threat for its future, as pervasive pollution from sewage continues to damage the river’s ecosystem. The river, which carries pristine water from the Western Ghats has become excessively polluted … Read more
Representative image of a refinery. | Photo Credit: Bro Takes Photos Global warming is the result of certain greenhouse gases — but especially carbon dioxide (CO2) — building up in the air and preventing the planet from cooling as quickly as it would without them. Although some natural processes emit these gases, their build-up to … Read more
A farmer spreading fertiliser at a wheat field. File Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar/The Hindu One of the largest and most sustained trials analysing the impact of nano-urea on crop yields has concluded that its continued use could reduce yields of rice and wheat, which together constitute about 70% of India’s annual foodgrains output. Promoted by … Read more
Considering the ten earlier Budgets of the BJP-led government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is nothing much that the farmers and agricultural workers of India can expect from the coming Union Budget 2025 (eleventh) except more vicious attacks on their livelihood, made under the smokescreen of high-sounding phrases about their welfare. Dismal record … Read more
Based on field measurements, airmass trajectories, and particle dispersion and chemical transport model simulations, a study published in January 2025 has found that there is no linear correlation between stubble-burning events in Punjab and Haryana and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration in Delhi-NCR. The study also underscores that crop residue burning in Punjab and Haryana contributes … Read more
A farmer harvesting a paddy field with mechanised harvester at Thiruvalarsolai in Tiruchi district. (Image used for representational purpose only.) | Photo Credit: The Hindu Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana, or the developing agri-districts programme, in her record 8th Union Budget presentation on Saturday (February 1, 2025). Watch: … Read more
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday (February 1, 2025) announced the National Mission on High Yielding Seeds in her 8th Budget speech for the Modi government. Union Budget 2025 LIVE updates The main objectives of the initiative, as announced by Ms. Nirmala, are: strengthening the research ecosystem, targeted development and propagation of seeds … Read more
Simon Stiell, Secretary of U.N. Climate Change (UNFCCC). File | Photo Credit: Reuters U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell has called India a “solar superpower” and urged it to develop an ambitious climate plan covering its entire economy, saying that an even stronger embrace of the global clean energy boom will supercharge its economic rise. Mr. … Read more
In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up to an unsettling truth: he has transformed overnight into an insect, with no say in his own becoming. Neeraja Arjun’s transformation was not entirely unbidden, certainly not grotesque, but indubitably as life-shifting as Gregor Samsa’s. At CIT Colony in Mylapore, Neeraja lays up unlikely treasures — citrus peels and similar organic discards — … Read more
Himalayan Hangul Deer are under stress finds CSIR-CCMB scientist. Scientists at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) have highlighted the need for minimising human disturbances such as livestock grazing and herder movement during the mating and birthing seasons for population recovery of the Hangul Deer living in the Himalayas. They deduced this after … Read more
Image for representation. | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) recommended in a report and policy brief issued this week that coastal States like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat must take steps to protect their telecom assets from natural disasters. The CDRI is a multilateral organisation based in New Delhi that … Read more
A view of a poultry farm, near Nunna in NTR district, in Andhra Pradesh. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao The Andhra Pradesh Government has declared four areas as Biosecurity Zones, where the restrictions are imposed, in view of the identification of the avian influenza (bird flu) cases in the State. The four areas are Badampudi … Read more
The intertidal pools of Rushikonda in Visakhapatnam was brimming with life that morning as the East Coast Conservation Team waded through the shallow waters, scanning the rocky crevices for marine wonders. Amid the sway of nudibranchs and sea grapes, Kusum Gorentla, an ECCT volunteer, spotted a delicate, ribbon-like object floating by. Its gentle undulations resembled … Read more
Image used for representative purpose only | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (January 22, 2025) approved a minimum support price of ₹5,650 per quintal for raw jute for marketing season 2025-26, an increase of 6% or ₹315 over the pervious MSP. The information was given by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush … 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. Published – February 13, 2025 03:52 pm IST
Vocal communication plays an outsized role in how social animals survive in the wild. A loud cry from a baby attracts the attention of a parent. A scream can warn others of a predator lurking nearby. Humans have developed thousands of languages, spoken and signed, to share information, ideas, and emotions — yet they’re not … Read more
COP29, at Baku, Azerbaijan, aptly referred to as the ‘Climate Finance COP,’ has played a crucial role in operationalising core elements of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (PA). The adoption of Article 6 at Baku represents a renewed focus on the market mechanism which could help countries that are often constrained by limited resources … Read more
From the set of 25 postcards released by Postcrossing welfare Society of India, under the aegis of India Post | Photo Credit: Special arrangement R Sivakumar was one among the several signboard and banner artists in Tamil Nadu who were replaced by flex boards in the early 2000s. While many of his contemporaries left for Chennai … Read more
Muhammed Dilshad in Mozambique | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Before his first trip to Kashmir on a Royal Enfield bike in 2019, travel vlogger Muhammed Dilshad from Chelambra, Malappuram had donned many roles— from a bus boy to a parcel lorry driver. However, his foray into YouTube started as a form of journaling, where the … Read more
Forest department personnel, local fishermen and conservationists release 95 hatchings of endangered Olive Ridley turtles into the sea in Tonka beach of Honnavar taluk of Uttara Kannada on February 11, 2025. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement As many as 95 hatchlings of the endangered Olive Ridley turtle were released to Arabian Sea at Tonka beach … Read more
Image for representative purposes only | Photo Credit: Getty Images w has observed that the illegal felling of 980 trees in Greater Noida was not taken seriously by the Uttar Pradesh authorities and asked the principal chief conservator of forest to appear virtually before it on May 13 to apprise it on the action … Read more
The Palisades Fire burns a beach front property, January 8, 2025, in Malibu, California. | Photo Credit: AP The world warmed to yet another monthly heat record in January, despite an abnormally chilly United States, a cooling La Nina and predictions of a slightly less hot 2025, according to the European climate service Copernicus. … Read more
Patches of sand that turned black at the RK beach in Visakhapatnam on Monday. | Photo Credit: V. RAJU The sand on RK Beach, opposite the AU Yoga Village in the city, has turned black, to the dismay of beachgoers. They expressed disappointment over the development and blamed the authorities for not taking steps to … Read more
During the pandemic, life was reduced to its barest and most essential minimum. Wardrobes could be pared down: the regular sweatshirt and nightie were haute couture. One could get by on fewer possessions with the most indispensable one being the face-hugging mask. The commute became redundant. One could be parked at home along with their fancy … Read more
On a sunny day in January, A. Prakash, 40, sits on a boat in Kovalam, off the East Coast Road (ECR) in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu. He has just returned from a fishing trip where he saw 10 Olive Ridley sea turtle carcasses floating in the sea. “We (fisherfolk) have been seeing many such … Read more
Bijal Vachharajani is on a mission to make children fall in love with “the planet we call home” because she believes that “to love it is to protect it”. The former journalist, who is based out of Bengaluru, is a wildly (pun intended) prolific author of fiction and non-fiction. A voracious reader herself, Vachharajani thinks … Read more