While holistic solutions are available, municipalities have struggled to implement them without proper planning and support from various ministries. Sanjay K Gupta reports.

Forests are a critical repository of India's biodiversity, but widespread habitat destruction is hurting. Attitudes need change too. "Compensatory forestation does not really compensate - it only replaces trees, not biodiversity", says one former top forests official. Ramesh Menon reports.

What we do know is that the temperatures are rising and that weather patterns throughout the globe are being disrupted as a consequence, says Fred Pearce, one of the best-known environmental journalists and the author of Global Warming. Pearce recently spoke in Mumbai. Darryl D'Monte chaired the discussion.

Predictions of dire consequences from climate change are not new. For some communities, however, it is already too late to ward off the changes, and their only hope lies in adapting. Darryl D'Monte reports on a conference at which scientists and NGOs discussed such adaptations.

Predictions of dire consequences from climate change are not new. For some communities, however, it is already too late to ward off the changes, and their only hope lies in adapting. Darryl D'Monte reports on a conference at which scientists and NGOs discussed such adaptations.

As invasive species aggressively eliminate native plants and animals, whole ecosystems are impacted. India has been slow to recognise and respond to the complex challenges this poses. Meanwhile, invasives have already taken over large areas, with plenty of damage to show. Arati Rao reports.

Polyvinyl chloride or PVC is all around us. It is one of most versatile of plastic materials and its global production is at 40 million tonnes a year. Yet, PVC products are being phased around the world, and India may need to follow. Rasika Dhavse has more.

Recently, disaster struck all 53 families of the Chellipadam village in a Kochi suburb, when nearly 25 lorries, all carrying stinking garbage from the city rolled in with heavy police escort and dumped decaying garbage in their midst. The villagers had to flee their homes unable to stand the stench. M Suchitra and P N Venugopal have more.

Even as the IPCC's latest assessment speaks of the need for technocratic solutions to the challenge of global warming, the United Nations Security Council has signalled that this will be an issue of importance to questions of political stability and peace too. Gopal Krishna reports.

The formal count of the number of tigers in India's 28 tiger reserves is expected to be announced on 31 December 2007. The report could help formulate policies of land use as well as accentuate the debate on rehabilitation of forest dwellers in favour of wildlife conservation, writes Malini Shankar.

The contrast between the stand taken by India at Copenhagen and at the earlier UN Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 couldn't have been starker, writes Darryl D'Monte.

Notwithstanding the IPCC's error about glacier melting, there is consensus among scientists that the earth is warming. Those who deny it should offer proof, to the same standard that they demand of others, writes Darryl D'Monte.

The new coastal zone regulation reads as a compendium of the myriad exceptions to the few rules - a move away from managing the coastal natural resources based on principles to one based on discretion. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The replacement of CFCs by more benign HCFCs and HFCs has removed the risks linked to ozone depletion, but these gases continue to contribute to global warming. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The BRAI Bill 2013 purports to uphold the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety but completely overlooks a critical sub-protocol that provides for liability and redress in case of damage to biodiversity. Shalini Bhutani explains why that defeats the very purpose of the Bill.

Initiatives that do not factor in climate resilience and related gender concerns cannot address development challenges, but the manner in which state-level climate action plans are being implemented shows these are yet to become electoral planks. Aditi Kapoor reports.

The sweeping mandate in favour of the BJP under Narendra Modi was largely an outcome of the articulation of his idea of development, popularised as the “Gujarat Model.” But what could the defining features of such a model be?  Leo F Saldanha elaborates.

July 26, 2017 marked the 12th anniversary of Mumbai’s mega flood in 2005. Darryl D’Monte looks into the causes and effects of the deluge.

It’s not the crop burning, stupid. It’s vehicles that create smog and the media should educate the public. Anup Kumar explains.

45 years after their settlement in Arunachal Pradesh, these refugees are still fighting for citizenship and livelihood rights. There is sustained local opposition to their settlement, reports Ratna Bharali Talukdar.

Communities along the Shnongrim ridge are caught between the plans of mining companies and their own traditional livelihoods. Some are changing their minds, while others despair. Sonata Dkhar reports.

Rapid industrial growth brought wealth but also unchecked pollution to the town of Vapi. It impacted the local fishing communities by destroying their livelihoods. Manisha Goswami and Bharat Patel report on the decades of damage caused by the chemical industries in the area.

Laws addressing sexual violence may have changed in India, but with judicial response mired in scepticism and age-old attitudes towards rape survivors, there is little hope for justice. In conversation with Pamela Philipose, noted lawyer Vrinda Grover exposes the contradictions in the legal system.

The current shape of government is too distributed to tackle the scale and complexity of the rural employment guarantee. A National-level autonomous body should be created solely for implementing the NREGA, and this agency should have the necessary authority, in addition to the responsibility, to manage the implementation, says Trilochan Sastry.

A number of NGO-run schools in Tamilnadu are making a clear difference in helping underprivileged chilren get a better shot at the real world, in comparison to state-run schools. Still, the schools themselves need help, finds Krithika Ramalingam.

Papri Sri Raman

The odds of children in villages in Krishnagiri district, Tamilnadu, making it to college are one per cent, ten times below the low national average. Some interventions are helping, finds Krithika Ramalingam as she records the many realities here.

We can fight the scrouge of corruption not by legislation nor by moral pressures but by an awakened community which refuses to settle for anything less that what is its legitimate due, writes R Balasubramaniam.

While 'good' science has been given a quiet burial, the party for the biotechnology industry has just begun, writes Devinder Sharma.

The hype that surrounded the introduction of Bt Cotton has now predictably proven false, says Devinder Sharma.

Around the developed world, GM crops are discredited, but in India, under the emotional tag of 'eradicating hunger', the industry is having a free run, says Devinder Sharma.

2004 is being celebrated as the International Year of Rice, and the starchy grain has undergone a complete metamorphosis, says Devinder Sharma.

How does one countenance a regulator that does not adhere to the law of the land and is also unable to protect the interest of one group against another? The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, says Bhaskar Goswami, itself needs to be regulated to ensure it plays a balanced role.

Lobbyists for agri-business interests will promote their agenda, naturally, but we must judge the merit of introducing more GE crops in India ourselves. Common sense, and all the data that is open to scrutiny, suggests that we should not, says P V Satheesh.

An environment magazine recently carried a Gujarat government-funded NGO's advertisement portraying vast tracts of Saurashtra and Kachchh supplied with drinking water through pipelines forking off of the Sardar Sarovar Canal. Reports in the print media were telling quite a different story. Himanshu Upadhyaya digs deeper.

A Pepsi bottling plant in Kerala is extracting excess groundwater and may be subjecting it to contamination risks, a state government study had reported several months ago. Despite meeting five times, a state assembly committee has not acted. M Suchitra digs deeper.

The extent of submergence of villages and farmland in the Narmada valley under the backwaters of Sardar Sarovar dam increases with successive monsoons. Himanshu Upadhyaya stresses the need for a more realistic and effective look at solutions to the woes of the region.

The construction of barrages to meet the water needs of thermal power plants in western Chattisgarh shows that irregularities involved in the allocation of this resource may be as large as the ones in coal allocation itself. Shripad Dharmadhikary throws light on the issue.

The uncertainty of the nature and extent of climate change impact on the water sector calls for adaptive and flexible measures. Shripad Dharmadhikary quotes from a recent report of a Working Group within the IPCC to explain why.

In many part of rural India, women spend most of their time walking long distances to collect water for their household's needs. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna visits the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where the women no longer have to worry about fetching water from long distances thanks to an intervention that has brought potable water right to their doorstep.

Last month, the Bombay High Court passed an order to shift IPL matches scheduled for the month of May out of the state of Maharashtra citing an acute water shortage in some parts of the state for its decision. PRS Legislative Research, answers some basic questions about ground water and its depletion in our country.

The belief that slum dwellers convert any structure they are given into another slum is thoroughly disproved in Charkop. There is clearly a sense of community, and each cluster feels proud to maintain the cleanliness of its surroundings, writes Kalpana Sharma.

How do we bring back to our streets the Indian identities they once had? The answer lies in documenting and codifying the many elements of construction in the past, for evolving an architecture with an Indian identity, writes Kiran Keswani.

An Andhra Pradesh federation is aiming to transform the state's panchayats and municipalities into genuine Local Governments.

Elections 2004 are around the corner and Jayaprakash Narayan points out that the 'hate-politicians' attitude is perilous to democracy itself.

As poverty in Karnataka acquires a larger urban face, municipal administrations must reorient themselves to meet basic needs, says Kathyayini Chamaraj.

At the heart of the PM's proposed shift in economic direction are efficient service delivery and local governance. He needs to begin down this road by showing a willingness to scrap top-down Delhi-driven schemes.

There are many ideas about how change occurs. Each has some strengths and is able to influence government to some degree, for good as well as bad. I prefer advocacy of decency and an autonomy that benefits people directly over other methods, says Ashwin Mahesh.

This time around, there is too much pressure - from opposition, media, and people at large - on the standing committee and Parliament for them to sit over the bill and let it lapse, writes Mathew Prasad Idiculla.

A complete and accurate database of dams and rivers in the country is the first pre-requisite for analysing hydrological issues and safety, but an analysis by Himanshu Thakkar shows that the authority entrusted to maintain such records clearly has a long way to go.