Global lungs or firewood for the poor?
Indiscriminate felling of trees to meet human and animal needs is not only depleting India's forest wealth at an alarming rate, but also …
Writer's block
Science journalism in India suffers from a lack of understanding among writers and a reluctance on the part of scientists to explain their work
Opium dreams lull most youth in UP district
Opium and its derivatives hold almost complete sway over the lives of most of the youth of Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district, where the Union …
Catch a tiger by its pug
Accurate tiger census methodology assumes significance in the context of the recent controversy over the declining number of tigers in the Indian …
Superheroes of Manila's traffic
Converted World War II vintage jeeps, called jeepneys in the Philippines, are the most popular mode of public transport in Manila. They are …
Looking beyond hype and nostalgia
To most modern Indian writers, the environment means trees, birds and animals -- and human beings, in aesthetic or metaphysical communion with them.
Arunachal's green could soon turn brown
Acquiring prime forest land near town and highway and then selling it at an exorbitant price has become routine in the state
Child weavers toil till the day is done
Trapped and exploited by dollar-hungry exporters, a child carpet-weaver's work ends when the sun goes down. Only then is he free to have his …
Poetry born of struggle
Whether the revolutionary passion of his early verse, or the more mellow vision of his later work, Jnanpith award-winner Subhas Mukhopadhyay's …
Several Worlds, one vision
Satyajit Ray's films showed an extreme sensitivity to the natural world. Yet he was no naturalist. The people he portrayed were carefully …
A city derailed
The Calcutta tramcar system, perhaps the only eco-friendly feature in the city's ruined landscape, is heading towards extinction
If words were deeds
If a recently-held seminar on the Girl Child in the capital is any indication, her plight is not going to improve in a hurry.
The year of ecobabble
Despite numerous proclamations of eco-friendliness and a deluge of treaties, not much was done in 1993 to make fuelwood and clean water easily …
Hard-selling a fallacy
The North will stagnate, South will grow, and the multinationals, aided by World Bank ideologues, will exploit the poorer countries for their own …
Homework on global summits
Representatives of the South must pull up their socks on garnering vital data on the ongoing policy debates
All for the people
International organisations concentrating on the moral and material uplift of the underpriviledged
Requiem
It was a strong anti -adulteration law aimed at the standardising of food stuffs. Stronger industrial lobbies and vested interests helped it die …
Taken for a ride
Consumer-consciousness has yet to make a dent in the mind of the average Indian buyer. That 'consumer is the king' has remained merely a slogan …
Here we come, eco-chums!
Indigenous support systems that have been nourishing the Himalaya for centuries have become the current buzzword for progress
Coming of the know-all
The socio-ecological implications of the knowledge revolution are many and multifaceted. But the world needs a system where a 'post bi-polar' …
A disease called pollutionitis
Most of Delhi's urban elite suffer from this disease which makes them "rationally irrational". The disease is accompanied by finger-pointitis and …
A letter from a villager
A villager in Goa wants to cut a tree growing in his backyard to mend his damaged roof. But he needs to get permission from the tree officer. And …
HEADS or TAILS
A close look at the history of climate change negotiations reveals some alarmingly reckless traits in Indian policymaking
Intrepid non-learners
Indian politicians travel on public money—for what they can learn from the click of a mouse
A revolution redefined
Troubled by the degradation of soil and water, French farmers are now switching to a more sustainable practise of agriculture