Science
Down To Earth
Silent Spread
More than 100 countries are at the risk of desertification. Left unchecked, this could fuel conflicts and displace 700 million people worldwide by 2050
8 min |
September 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Picture Imperfect
It’s difficult to ignore how desertification is expanding in areas that are on the front line of climate change
5 min |
September 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Quash The Dogma
Most policies to tackle desertification are bound to fail. The problem will get solved as soon as they become holistic
7 min |
September 01, 2019
Down To Earth
It Is Everybody's Business
Private sector is vital to restore land and sustain life
3 min |
September 01, 2019
Down To Earth
A Quarter Under Desertification
What does this mean for India where more than 60 per cent of the population depends on agriculture?
10+ min |
September 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Trouble For Tomato
Country's biggest tomato producing district surrenders to cheap Chinese pulp
4 min |
April 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Ask No Questions!
The amendment to the RTI Act will hit grassroots activism
3 min |
August 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Champaran Redux
Peasants in Champaran are relying on satyagraha once again to claim the land their ancestors once owned.
4 min |
April 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Hidden Wonders of India
Did you know that the Ganga and the Brahmaputra sequester nearly 20 per cent of the global carbon? Or that Bengaluru owes its unique climate to a tectonic event that took place 88 million years ago? For the first time, a book comprehensively collates all scientific streams about the natural history of the Indian subcontinent. Down To Earth speaks to PRANAY LAL, author of Indica, on the jaw-dropping facts about our natural history.
4 min |
April 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Plateful of Pain
Climate change will make the disease burden more complex. Breakthroughs may help the affluent, but the poor will not have access to even basic healthcare.
3 min |
May 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Target Zero
India's waste will double in the next 25 years. If we are to avoid drowning in garbage, adopting zero waste management is a must.
4 min |
May 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Sukhomajri Falls Apart
A model Haryana village, which had pulled itself out of poverty by managing natural resources, shuns the very model of development.
5 min |
February 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Withering Heights
The rich diversity of aquatic plants in the Eastern Ghats has aided local communities in meeting their nutritional as well as livelihood needs. AJAY MAHAPATRA and ASHOK BISWAL analyse why these poorly documented plants are under threat.
3 min |
February 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Lock & Hold
The jallikattu debate is playing out much like the game itself, with each side trying to gain the upper hand: animal rights groups alleging animal cruelty, the Tamil people insisting on tradition and future of native cattle breeds, and governments eager to assuage feelings of discontent. Who will tame whom?
8 min |
February 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Through a Narrow Path
An engineering folly unfolds over a week-long journey along Bihar's Kosi river, a tempestuous tributary of the Ganga.
10+ min |
January 01, 2017
Down To Earth
A Fruitful Journey
A food safari in the desert of Rajasthan reveals a variety difficult to imagine in cities.
8 min |
January 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Embrace of Chipko
Impacts of the Chipko movement are visible in Chamoli even after four decades, but Tehri Garhwal has taken a different turn.
10 min |
January 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Serpentine Problem
WHO now recognises snakebite as a neglected disease. But India, which has the highest number of snakebite deaths, is woefully ill-prepared in tackling the problem
4 min |
August 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Inking Solutions To Pollution
Two Indian startups are converting polluted air particles into inks and paints
4 min |
August 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Back To Bins
The City Corporation of Panaji wants to discontinue the decentralised waste management system that helped it become a bin-free city
4 min |
August 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Aral Apocalypse
The Aral Sea has shrunk to a fourth of its size. Neha Mungekar travels to Uzbekistan and recounts how it remains a living sample of a monumental human-made ecological catastrophe
5 min |
August 1, 2017
Down To Earth
Antarctic Peninsula Gets Greener
THE ANTARCTIC Peninsula is turning green, with rising temperatures having a "dramatic effect" on the growth of moss, scientists have discovered.
1 min |
June 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Save Our Seas
The UN's first conference to save the oceans is a grand show of intent to reset our relationship with the largest sink of carbon dioxide and the biggest receptacle for human wastes. But will governments, industries and organisations stand by the big voluntary commitments they have made? VIBHA VARSHNEY reports from UN headquarters in New York
10+ min |
June 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Age Of Bioclean
Microbes are increasingly being used to clean contaminated sites
3 min |
June 16, 2017
Down To Earth
The Catch In Conservation
Ullas Karanth has many lessons to offer to make wildlife management in India more scientific
2 min |
June 16, 2017
Down To Earth
The Curious Mind
The urge to look towards the sky stems from an intrinsic human curiosity emanating out of not just scientific but also existential queries
4 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Arrival Of The Disruptors
A handful of billionaires are working hard to make space colonisation a reality. In the process they are reviving a sector that had stagnated for decades. Is this democratisation of space or a high-tech coup?
10+ min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Burden Of Relief
The Union government’s decision to exempt captive power plants from meeting renewable energy targets will upset India’s climate change mitigation plan
3 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Uncharted Territory
The next step involves sending humans to space and responding to the changing dynamics of global space business
6 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Not To Visit, But To Inhabit
The human civilisation is going to relocate for the first time, a part of it at least
4 min |