No land for best option: composting
Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, does not have a municipal waste-treatment facility. Its only plant to treat solid waste, located …
I am green by choice , not by chance
Probably the first chief minister of Delhi to have taken a keen interest in the environment, Shiela Dixit has got a mixed response for her …
The many ways of GM contamination
Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the food and environment programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is among the most …
‘Tribals turn extremists because states are too busy making money from land’
The world’s largest democracy is facing a surge in tribal uprisings. The recent killings of Mahendra Karma and other Congress leaders in …
'Building and retaining capacity is the toughest challenge'
Balakrishna Pisupati is in the hot seat as chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), where he has to deal with regulatory and …
'Most countries don’t want to recognise indigenous people as people'
Mohammed Taghi Farvar, former director of Avicenna University in Iran, is a well-known ecologist and social scientist. At present, he is the …
Dealing with crop stresses and scandals
Subbanna Ayyappan has made history in the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (IACR) by becoming the first non-crop scientist to head this …
Whitley Award winner's mission hornbill
Hornbills, the awkward-looking birds with over-sized beaks, are important for the regeneration of Himalayan forests in north-east India. They are …
How to contain Himalayan tsunamis
The Himalaya has one of the most fragile topographies among mountain ranges of the world on account of being the youngest. Even though its phase …
Secretive tribunals, hidden damages
Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, …
India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable
Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable …
"Nature is not loved in India"
HARISH GAONKAR took his childhood passion for butterflies seriously enough to carve out an illustrious career in lepidopterology for himself. A …
Biotechnology assures leap in production
Tissue culture can change the face of agriculture, asserts Ajit Thomas, who heads a firm that has gone in a big way for biotechnology …
I hate scavenging, but what else can I do?
Rameshwari has been working as a scavenger in the pilgrim town of Ajmer in Rajasthan for the last 15 years. She abhors her work, yet she does it …
"I am neither here, nor there"
Young Saif Ali is one of a handful of bhanyara (nomadic) Gujjars of northern Himachal Pradesh who attend college. But education has led him into …
'India way ahead in tackling waste'
PAUL CONNET, professor at the Chemistry department, St Lawrence University, New York, has toured 29 countries in the last 11 years, educating …
'Values of our society lead to disaster'
In 1972, Dennis Meadows had co-authored the well-known report, Limits to Growth, along with Donella Meadows and Jorgen Randers. Recently, the …
I will not work for any company, big or small
Until recently, 14-year-old Daham was just another child carpet weaver. When he left his Bihar village to find work in UP's Mirzapur district, he …
"We are starved of funds"
KALYAN BANERJEE, director of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, speaks to MAX MARTIN about the emergence and re-emergence of viral …
The model man
Whether it is his well-known monsoon model or his new population model, Vasant Gowarikar enjoys defying the classical definitions of a specialist.…
North overconsumes resources, but efficiently
Friends of the Earth (FOE) in Netherlands has been fighting unsustainable lifestyles in the world's affluent societies by campaigning vigorously …
Indian farmers can take on the multinationals
Sharad Joshi, the well-known, controversial farm leader from Maharashtra, outlines a new strategy for agriculture.
'Orangi is not unique, I am'
Akhtar Hameed Khan is one of Asia's foremost social organisers. The Orangi Pilot Proiect, Karachi's outstanding slum development programme, …
National parks are luxury in Third World
KRISHNA B Ghimire, who is a project coordinator with the UN Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva, has done extensive research on …
Gene transfer yields pest-resisting rice strain
Darshan S Brar, who has been working for years on rice hybrids at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, talks about gene …