Nature and Conservation
The Hindu Editorial on Protecting the Western Ghats
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2769353.ece The Hindu has a leader comment today, endorsing the view of scientists that the entire Western Ghats should be declared ecologically sensitive, and mining in Goa halted. In particular, the editorial calls for scrapping of the destructive Athirapilly and Gundia hydroelectric projects in Kerala and Karnataka respectively. If you believe the Western Ghats deserve [...]
Life in the Himalaya, and how to save it
Book Review : Protection of Himalayan Biodiversity – International Environmental Law and a Regional Legal Framework. By Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Sage Publications, B1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India, 382 pp, Price not stated All geographical regions of the world have a role to play in the sustenance of humanity, but [...]
A sobering report on India’s poverty from OPHI
Poverty talk is mostly confined these days to prime time television, where contrived debates fuelled by puffed-up anchors and venal politicians fill the gap between commercials. In the case of newspapers, they minimally take notice of the problem. Their so-called process journalism mostly ignores chronic poverty, as it does everything else chronic — lack of [...]
Copenhagen: Will India take the green path?
Regardless of the outcome at the Copenhagen climate conference, India has the historic opportunity to reorient itself towards a green path of economic growth. The key factor that should influence national policy is the iniquitous nature of current emissions. At an estimated 1.2 tonnes equivalent of carbon dioxide, India’s per capita emissions of greenhouse gases [...]
India at Copenhagen: What it must do
I believe the following are key issues that the Government of India and the State Governments must address quickly, to make a convincing case about our intentions to reduce carbon emissions: 1. Massively invest in solar energy – this will help meet the target of 20,000 MW of production, as well as take electricity to [...]
Be happy, old fruit – and do some good!
A strong inclination towards gardening, particularly of the organic variety may draw smirks from friends these days. Maintaining close links with nature is unfortunately seen as a sign of approaching geriatric obsolescence. So be it. My near-obsession with the natural way of life finds expression in different ways. Last year, I told Mr. M.B.Nirmal of Exnora [...]
The thrill of discovering new species
Discovering a new species is an exciting moment for researchers. Often, it humbles everyone by demonstrating how little we know. The finding of a new species of an elephant shrew in a biodiversity hotspot in Tanzania, the first in 126 years for such an animal, is no different. New Scientist points out that this shrew is not [...]
The (Positive) Green Agenda
This is the year that the Green agenda is taking root in many places. In the US, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the Al Gore Nobel did a lot to pull green action from the alternative media to the political mainstream (although Gore has been working on this for more than two decades). [...]
Again, a message of hope for tigers in India
One of the biggest reality shows on earth happens not in the studios of Sony, Zee or Star, but in the few forests that still stand in India. In these dense woods, the ancient truth of fang and claw is reinforced each day as animals struggle to survive another dawn or dusk. No single animal of its kind is [...]
