How has India’s caste system lasted for so many centuries?
Caste system continues even after losing its raison d’etre, but the scramble for development has destroyed the ancient sustainable and …
Not a blade of grass
...although the now bald pate of Iceland was once resplendent with grass and verdant willow, rowan and birch forests
Why zoonotic diseases are fast spreading to humans
Infectious diseases that were once confined to animals in forests are now attacking human beings, at a faster pace
Deforestation and the weakening monsoon in India
A recent study by IIT Bombay says that deforestation and conversion of forest to crop land has weakened the monsoon in India. The study was …
Earth Day 2016: Tree tale
The conflict between humans and trees has become starker. Since humans have pushed trees out of conducive habitats, trees can now be seen growing …
When the water begins to stink
...Yet another rainforest disappears and a way of life dies as "development" catches up with the Guaranis of Paraguay
If you want to read a book
...the near universal necessity of being the owner of a book to read it needs immediate and drastic revision
A motley crew of forest protectors
In Karnataka's Kodagu district, a group of people battling timber traders trying to exploit their region's virgin forests has earned the wrath of …
Star-cross in Nigeria
NGOs and the Cross River state government are locked in a duel over the latter's plans to grant logging concessions to a Chinese metal company in …
Law for the jungle
Supreme Court passes an interim order banning commercial activities in all forest areas
The beetle and the bureaucrat
Eleven lakh sal trees face the axe in order to exterminate a beetle that is boring a hole into the image of the forest bureaucracy
Tropical forests the size of Europe lost in first 20 years of this century
South America lost around 68 million hectares — the highest in the world, followed by Africa with 49 million hectares, according to a new …
Agenda: Forests for real
We need fifth-generation forest reforms that will secure forests for growth and livelihood
Desertification: Forest cover on the planet continues to shrink
The rate of deforestation has slowed down after 2005 yet forest cover on the planet continues to shrink, says a preliminary assessment report by …
Delhi tree felling: Absent forest policy, absentee Tree Authority
Between 2014 and 2017, the government planted 28,12,000 trees against the target of 36, 57,000, leaving a shortfall of 845,000 trees
Andaman & Nicobar grapples with tourist influx, deforestation and scars of 2004 Tsunami
Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story is a collection of writings by Pankaj Sekhsaria on problems the archipelago has been facing in the …
Around the world, environmental laws are under attack in all sorts of ways
Essential environmental safeguards are being conveniently downsized, diminished, ignored or swept under the carpet all over the world
Inverse proportion: species quantum and carbon dioxide
The extinction of species decreases plant productivity and impairs the functions of an ecosystem -- like mopping up carbon dioxide
People goaded to save their forests
Fed up with government inaction on mining and deforestation in the Aravallis, the people of the region are taking it upon themselves to end the …
A Cash-hungry Russia eyes its Siberian coniferous forests
The Siberian forests are facing the axe from a Russia eager to top the financial potencial of its timber.
The axe and human civilisation
The use and abuse of wood is a major theme in the history of humankind according to a new book, A Forest Journey
A Himalayan plunder
RITA ANAND looks at changes in Himalayan forest cover in historical perspective, focusing on the Kaghan Valley in northern Pakistan
Cutting disgrace
Increased demand for timber in Pakistan has prompted poor tribals to sell their trees as a means of generating income
Vanishing green
India lost about 5,550 sq km of forest cover in the last two years. Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were the worst hit
At least 420 million hectares forest lost since 1990: Survey
Impact of agricultural expansion on global deforestation almost 90%, says FRA remote-sensing survey