DIVINING ROUND THE CLOCK WATER
Urban India’s water story is beset with contradictions.Municipalities in India supply much more water than those in Europe and North America,…
ENDOSULFAN CONSPIRACY
It was in February 2001 that Down To Earth broke the story A link was established between the unusually high incidence of deformities and …
Trading in contraband
While tiger parts, ivory and sandalwood smuggling continue to attract all the public attention, what India is losing is its medicinal wealth to …
Agony of the waiting
There is a strange calmness in the oncology department of government hospitals though it is more crowded that most other sections. Everybody waits.…
Three sides to every story
Arthur Dunkel's legacy of proposals on patent, science and investment laws continues to be perceived differently. Even in individual countries, …
The drowning of a city
There are both in Delhi - criminal waste, unendurable want. And in this city of verdant veneers, nowhere does the callous politics of …
Plagued by rats
In the months of August and September 1994, panic gripped the country as news of the plague epidemic in Surat spread. Few had cared to ponder …
Saboteurs Unlimited
The key actors in the government responsible for implementing the Supreme Court order do not share the vision to safeguard public health. An …
Floods: Time for a rethink
This year in mid-July, the Baghmati, Budhi Gandhak and Lakhandai went into spate in Bihar. In Assam, several districts were engulfed by the …
Resurgent polio
Eradicating polio in India is proving to be a tough ask. The disease, which seemed to have been contained a few years ago, is rearing its head …
The blind Court
This is a story of justice denied. On February 13, 1996, the Supreme Court, the highest seat of justice in the country, ruled that five units …
Geared to derail
Late last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Indian Railways (IR) castigated the for squandering money on import deals which would …
Whither liberalisation
The post-GATT liberalisation era has come to India not only with its enchanting platter of economic efficiency, technological treasure trough …
Foss time in India
Microsoft is the most familiar term in the proprietary software industry. The company's penetration in people's minds is so deep that it is often …
Will the Aral Sea ever come back?
"Forgive us, Aral. Please come back." These words written in chalk, on a ship sftKk in a sandy wasteland, which was once the bustling …
Wild & fragile
The Western Ghats in the south of India have forests which are, for some plant species, their exclusive home on this earth. No wonder then, that …
Promises to keep
With the 1996 general elections just around the corner, the nation's premier political parties are back to making elaborate 'green' promises. But …
Catch me a colossus
Catching Veerappan, who amuses himself upsetting the government cart, is like trying to cage a titan. The State is in no position to meet his …
The Method Behind The Madness
When the official system learns to loot the official treasury, it also targets the natural estate, the biggest property of the modern state. Good …
The power game
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly influential in the past 50 years. Awareness of human rights and social and …
Waters of life
Tarun Bharat Sangh of Alwar is well-known for its work on reviving traditions of waterharvesting. But few know about the economic advantages of …
The spirit of the sanctuary
Sacred groves - tracts of virgin forests - are vestiges of an ancient practice in which people protected a forest to avoid the wrath of its …
Polluted and ignored
Talk about air pollution in India and everybody thinks of the four metropolitan cities. But the ambient air quality in even smaller cities and …
A belief in tradition
It was a unique ceremony for a unique award given to a unique rural community of India. In what is perhaps the first ceremony of its kind, …
SEZ, how special?
Despite having burned its fingers with export processing zones, which mainly involved a number of substantial fiscal benefits, the government has …