As the sun rose over India’s diverse landscapes, birding enthusiasts across the country set out with binoculars and notebooks for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) – a global citizen science initiative that documents avian diversity over four days. This year at the GBBC conducted from February 14 to 17, India soared to an … Read more
Green Humour | Photo Credit: Rohan Chakravarty 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 20, 2025 03:41 pm IST
Union Budget 2025: What’s in it for agriculture? | Video Credit: The Hindu A look at what the Union Budget 2025 had in store for agriculture, and farmers. Reporting: AM Jigeesh Video: Sabika Syed Editing: Tayyab Hussain Published – February 01, 2025 09:01 pm IST
Watch: Warmest January on record, deadline for updated NDCs | Video Credit: Zeeshan Akhtar January 2025 kept up with the trend of recording hottest average temperatures ever. The month was 1.75 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels. January temperatures came as a surprise to scientists too. Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at ECMWF called … Read more
Many nocturnal animals, including insects like ants and bees, follow the moon’s position to find their way when they go foraging. But the moon waxes and wanes in a cycle and can be obscured by clouds or overhanging tree canopies, so the animals can’t always directly track its position. Now, for the first time, scientists … Read more
Puja material and other waste being collected at the Sangam for their disposal, during the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, on February 19, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Wednesday (February 19, 2025) dismissed concerns over the presence of faecal bacteria in the river water … Read more
A file photo of cheetahs at Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district. | Photo Credit: PTI A new study by the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), which examines the ethical, ecological and welfare challenges associated with the translocation of African cheetahs to India, has expressed concern over the translocation of the animals … Read more
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and protesters take part in a demonstration against the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres, in Saix, France, February 10, 2024. | Photo Credit: AFP Sweden’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other activists cannot proceed with a lawsuit that had sought to force … Read more
In this photo provided by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, false killer whales are seen stranded, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, on a remote beach on near Arthur River in Australia’s island state of Tasmania. | Photo Credit: AP More than 150 false killer whales are stranded on a remote beach on Australia’s … Read more
While a part of the commitment made at COP-21 in 2015, countries started submitting BTRs only by 2024. File India is in the final stages of preparing its first ever Biannual Transparency Report (BTR), part of its commitment as a signatory to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Environment Ministry officials told The Hindu. … Read more
It is as though a festival is in progress on a patch of forest at the Periyanayakkanpalayam range. Scooters and cars are parked haphazardly along a stretch as families arrive in droves, children in tow. A young father leads his daughter through the crowd, while a mother walks briskly, hugging her baby to her chest. … Read more
Trucks loaded with tonnes of Union Carbide’s toxic waste from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy are parked in Pithampur industrial town of Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday allowed the State government to conduct three trial runs by disposing of 10 tonnes each of … Read more
A sunrise is seen against the Aravali mountain ranges in Ajmer, in Rajasthan, on December 16, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP The story so far: The Haryana government’s ambitious 3,858 hectare Aravali safari park project spread across Gurugram and Nuh — which was one of the poll promises of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party last … Read more
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