In 1871 photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran joined an expedition to the Yellowstone region of the United States, which they documented in a series of powerful and moving creative works. Soon after, Jackson’s and Moran’s images became the catalysts for Congress to designate the very first national park at Yellowstone. This little-known detail, that artists played a major[Read More…]

Hundreds of environment defenders have been murdered in countries. Environment defenders face lethal attacks and violence. Global Witness in Last Line of Defence report said: In 2020, we recorded 227 lethal attacks – an average of more than four people a week – making it once again the most dangerous year on record for people defending their homes, land and[Read More…]

Globally, bees and butterflies, the winged beauties of the insect-beasty world, are dying, vanishing from habitat and planet.  Bees and butterflies are pollinators.  Without them, there will be no flowers. But it does not stop there.  The agricultural food chain of humanity collapses.  A horrifying explosion of worldwide starvation then results.  What happens when people are chronically hungry?  What are[Read More…]

 Half of Nagaland is degraded, flags new report Six states in northeastern India were among the top 10 places in the country with the highest rates of desertification between 2003 and 2018, according to a recent report. These are Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Punjab, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand in northern India also witnessed some[Read More…]

While any new large-scale deforestation immediately attracts attention, the more insidious change of species  often escapes attention and concern. However these changes can be very important. In particular if the share of broad-leaf species like the oak reduces significantly, then the soil and water conservation role as well as flood protection role of Himalayan and foothill forests will be lost[Read More…]

My city sits on the western edge of a body of water that has figured large in the nation’s history, Lake Erie. My wife and I are fortunate to live in the part of Toledo where the lake is literally our front yard. Grade school history classes, consisting mostly of memorizing wars and generals, taught that in the first battle[Read More…]

In one of his first acts in the White House, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to have the United States rejoin the Paris climate agreement. It signaled an important step in the country recommitting to action to tackle climate change after the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the accord and worked to roll back environmental regulations nationwide. Biden’s[Read More…]

Landslides are becoming increasingly frequent and destructive, and the last week of July 2021  has been particularly worrying in India in this context as within the span of a few days in  Maharashtra, Western Ghats and Himalayan region  landslides claimed  over a 100 human lives. This is part of a rising trend of landslides becoming more destructive in India as[Read More…]

 To Shri Bhupender Yadav Minister Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Yadav, Rarely do persons with such credible professional background as you have, especially in the highly specialised field of environmental jurisprudence, are asked to preside over the MEFCC. Let me welcome you to your new assignment, with the earnest hope and belief that you[Read More…]

Recent new initiatives of the Punjab government to bring real greenery to the state need to be widely welcomed. This state really needs environment protection, particularly as what was falsely called green revolution in farming caused such immense ( and entirely avoidable)ecological ruin. The new measures announced show much promise of increasing the overall green cover, and if adequate precaution[Read More…]

On June 30 2021 Channel 4 broke the news of a senior Exxon Mobil lobbyist captured on camera explaining how US senators were roped into efforts to block climate change legislation. This should give us in India pause. Could such things be happening here too? In 2018, PM Narendra Modi was awarded the United Nations ‘Champion of the Earth’ award. Readers[Read More…]

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced in the last budget that a Fintech Park would come up in state capital Jaipur, attracting investment of about Rs3,000 crore. Over four lakh sq metres of land near the airport, adjoining the B2 Bypass and Tonk Road, would be allotted for it. “Many chartered accountants and IT professionals belonging to the state are[Read More…]

Many questions still remain unanswered by Assam forest department over the mysterious deaths of 18 wild Asiatic elephants on Bamunipahar in Nagaon locality on 12 May (as the authority claimed) because the final report rested on the assumption (not scientific analysis) that the bulky animals died due to electrocution by a major thunderbolt. Analysing many loopholes in the investigation report,[Read More…]

In the second major container ship accident in Sri Lankan waters in the past year, the X-Press Pearl, which was awaiting entry to Colombo port, caught fire on May 20 after a chemical leak. All attempts to douse the fire failed and the ship sank about 10 nautical miles off the west coast of Sri Lanka, creating major problems for[Read More…]

To create global awareness about the importance of a healthy environment, world environment day is celebrated every year on June 5. Also known as, Eco day or simply Environment day, world environment day was established by UN General Assembly in 1972. Its celebrations are theme-based and each year a particular theme is declared by United Nations. The theme of first-world[Read More…]

The special theme of the World Environment Day observed on June 5 relates this year to the restoration  of ecosystems, certainly a subject of very great importance in times of so much ecological ruin. It is even more encouraging, and of more durable value, that  the United Nations has declared 2021-30 to be the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration and[Read More…]

There is an increasing realization that the mobilization of people on environmental issues will be increasingly important in the days and years to come. Left to themselves the world leadership will be unable to make some of the most important changes in time. So a considerable strengthening of environmental movement all over the world with a clearer vision and proper[Read More…]

Till mid-April an extended spell of dry weather was causing deep concern in Himachal Pradesh. The state government was making preparations to meet drought-like conditions in a big part of the state. At several places an unprecedented number of forest fires had been reported even before the onset of summer. Several villages and even urban settlements had already started suffering[Read More…]

The people of Navalewadi village in Pune district awoke to the panic-stricken roars of a leopard on Tuesday morning. A healthy two-year-old female leopard had been splashing around in a 25-feet-deep well, and seemed exhausted. The villagers alerted the forest department. A team of four, comprising forest staff joined by members of NGO Wildlife SOS was dispatched to the spot.[Read More…]

As the summer advances, there are increasing reports of acute drinking water shortages from many villages. A recent report from Himachal Pradesh, for example, says that over 400 drinking water schemes of Shimla and over 220 schemes of Mandi have been hit by a spell of dry  weather. This is the situation in early April and the situation is likely[Read More…]

Apple orchards have been highly prioritized in the development path adopted by several Himalayan regions. So it is important to emphasize that the apple orchards t should opt for more sustainable paths, instead of going  in for hurried  ways which may prove to be costly later and cause ecological ruin as well. The creation of apple orchards over large areas[Read More…]

A BASIC UNANSWERED PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION An always basic, on-going, unanswered philosophical question is: Are human beings in the 21st century truly capable of learning how to live side-by-side one another in relative perpetual harmony with the natural world that surrounds them? From time to time over the years the historic Bowser Nature Trail, and its fragile greenbelt escarpment slope, located[Read More…]

Protecting Natural Forests, Regenerating, Mimicking Old Forests to Create New Ones Today March 21 is  UN International Day of Forests , also called World Forestry Day. While protection of natural forests has always been very important, at no other time was this more important than in present time with its unprecedented threat of climate change and survival crisis, many sided[Read More…]

We should be much more  cautious about the loss of such sweet friends We are aware of some losses and we take steps to prevent them. But some losses occur over a longer period of time and we realize only too late that we have lost something very precious. Such is the feeling that millions and millions of human being[Read More…]

To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Gupta, Please read this letter in continuation of my earlier letter dated 19-3-2021 on imprudence on the part of your Ministry allowing ex-post facto approvals for projects coming up in violation of the CRZ notification. I have had an opportunity to[Read More…]

  To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India   Dear Shri Gupta, I have just come across a disturbing news report that your Ministry has issued orders permitting industrial projects to obtain post-facto CRZ clearances (https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/mar/18/centre-allows-projects-to-obtain-post-facto-coastal-regulation-zone-clearance-2278359.html). If this report is factually correct, I am afraid that, by issuing such a[Read More…]

In 2016, when CEO Ata Safdar of Reckitt Benckiser, a UK-based firm, offered an apology to all those who had been affected by a toxic product that his firm sold in South Korea, an angry relative of one of the victims slapped him – an act caught on camera. RB’s toxic humidifier disinfectant had caused over 1,500 deaths, many of[Read More…]

Why Has Humanity Been Most Cruel Towards These Creatures Who Have Served Most Selflessly? If there was a prize for guessing the name of the life form which has served humanity ( as well the overall life-nurturing conditions of our planet)in the most valuable way with the greatest continuity and most selflessly, then perhaps very few will venture to suggest[Read More…]

Ecocide is the destruction of large areas of the natural environment as a consequence of human activity. That destruction of “large areas” has grown so conspicuously large, so threatening to all species, including human existence, that a group of international legal experts is working to submit a draft of a new law “Ecocide” to the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) at[Read More…]

Villages in Challakere taluk, Chitradurga district of Karnataka have been impacted by the illegal and unscientific diversion of nearly 10,000 acres of pristine Amrit Mahal Kaval grasslands to create a Science City. Kavals are unique ecological landscapes that are dominated by grasses and are perhaps the gene banks of future staples. They support livelihoods that are carbon neutral. But unfortunately,[Read More…]

Sanitation has been perhaps the weakest link in the urban development effort of India. The path towards better cities involves above all a big breakthrough in decentralized sanitation solutions and linking these with increasing greenery. First and perhaps foremost, there should be waste segregation at source level, whether home or workplace, so that we have at least four categories –[Read More…]

All aware citizens know the state of Bangladesh environment. Bangladesh courts of law regularly rule in favor of environment. Bangladesh media cover the area every day. Bangladesh environment activists regularly stand for environment. The commoners take care of environment and nature within their capacity, which is chained by capitals. And, some capitals regularly, everyday and all the time, exploit and[Read More…]

The dying state of Indian rivers calls for serious actions by the public and the government at large During my recent conversation with Mr. Tapas Das, I was shocked to know the sorry state of the rivers in our country. While he mentioned that the water flow in Ganga reduced by as much as 57% in most parts between 1975[Read More…]

Environment can’t escape contradictions. Exploitative economy with its antagonistic connections to environment creates antagonistic contradictions with and within environment; and, the antagonistic contradictions are inescapable in the economy. Capitalism intensifies the contradictions. Two revolutionaries, Marx and Engels find: “Our own age, the bourgeois age […] has simplified class antagonism. More and more, society is splitting into two great hostile camps,[Read More…]

Have you ever noticed, what is your source of information? From where do you get the daily news? Is it social media, TV news or newspaper? Irrespective of the news, do you think you get all sort of information which is of monumental importance to you and the society? Well, I think, in the world where we have got ourselves[Read More…]

“Dadi Canal is to the Dochnipora what Indus was to the Harrapan Civilization and Nile to the Egyptian Civilization” The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is situated in the subtropical and sub- temperate latitudes hence is characterized with great variations in terrain and altitudes. Consequently, it experiences the extremes in the mean monthly and annual range of temperatures. The[Read More…]

In the land where people worship nature and treat plants, trees, animals, and rivers as Gods and Goddesses, India performs abysmally low on environmental indicators. India is the second most polluted country after China. Moreover, 21 out of 30 cities around the world with the worst air quality are in India (Regan, 2020). According to the IQAir quality index, Kolkata[Read More…]

An eastern bluebird perches on a branch, watching the ground As the bleary summer days are coming to an end, lately I have been thinking a lot about birds and nature in general. Because of the ongoing pandemic due to the coronavirus when all normal activities have been rerouted, we are finding alternatives to live our day, and such thoughts[Read More…]

How Mumbai’s new coastal road poses a threat not only to the environment and fishing communities but also to sites of historical, religious and cultural importance.  The Haji Ali dargah as work proceeds on the Coastal Road project. | Photo credit: Aaran Patel. Every city, every place on earth is defined by characteristics, landmarks, or certain quirks of nature which[Read More…]

A report said: “Siberia, the proverbial coldest place, […] is experiencing record warm temperatures, melting sea ice, and massive wildfires — changes to the environment that even the scientists most urgently tracking the climate crisis didn’t expect to see for another several decades.” (Bridget Read, “The Arctic is on fire, and we should all be terrified”, The Cut, July 6,[Read More…]

E Urbanization and industrialization has taken over the world in the name of development , which lead to a rapid decline in our environmental treasure. In order to curtail this environmental depletion, the Government has introduced an assessment that controls the utilization, acquisition, and usage of natural resources by employing the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). This assessment is mandatory for[Read More…]

As India went into a lockdown to prevent the spread of the Covid 19, we witnessed a different kind of opening-up of our Protected Areas. As we worked from home, we were greeted with reports of several controversial projects being given a go-ahead in and around some of the most biodiverse regions, ironically by the Standing Committee of the very[Read More…]

The death of John Lewis is a reminder that power concedes nothing without a struggle and that social and ecological justice is a consequence of generational efforts. Building a fair, just, and prosperous ecological future, rooted in social and ecological justice means fundamental change of how we treat one another, how we govern, how we work, how we protect and[Read More…]

A long series of never-ending dystopias have generated during the COVID 19 pandemic.  The mega corporates from time immoral have quenched their thirst by exploiting and extracting resources from the earth without anticipating risks and harm. The dystopias of mishaps in various industrial units have led to corporate wrongdoing in our country. The saga of catastrophes from Chhattisgarh gas leak[Read More…]

              Every year, 5 June is celebrated as World Environment Day globally. Also called People’s day, this day is meant to encourage people to save and protect the environment. World Environment Day 2020 is spotlighting the importance of Biodiversity. According to the United Nations, the theme for this year is ‘Biodiversity’ with the slogan[Read More…]

TANGLA ,ASSAM December 7 – Rapid shrinkage and degradation of the grasslands of the Barnadi Widlife Sanctuary of Udalguri of Assam pose a serious threat to the long-term survival of the critically-endangered pygmy hog that was reintroduced to the sanctuary six months back that were captive breeded in state capital Guwahati. It is to be mentioned that the Durrell Wildlife[Read More…]

Chinese government’s massive open-pit mine in the rainy Papua New Guinea highlands, with its tons of toxic tailings full of sulphides and heavy metals, is to be poised above the Sepik River and its primary rainforests, intact local cultures, and the South Pacific Ocean. Apparently Papua New Guinea’s urban elites have learned little from decades of foreign industrial mining (and logging) causing conflict and despair, environmental damage, and social and economic decline.