Science
Down To Earth
Drive The Extra Mile
India is not only directly moving from BSIV to BSVI, it is also not allowing vehicle manufacturers extra time to sell the stock of unsold BSIV vehicles
4 min |
November 16, 2018
Down To Earth
Listen... Plants Too Speak
As early as in 1880, Charles Darwin demonstrated that plants could sense light, moisture, gravity, pressure and possessed several other qualities. Over the years, many scientists have proved that plants are sentient beings and move and respond to sensation. The subject is still controversial among the scientific community. Monica Gagliano is research associate professor of evolutionary ecology and former fellow of the Australian Research Council who has pioneered a brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics. In her latest book, Thus Spoke the Plant: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants, she, for the first time, has experimentally demonstrated that plants emit their own ªvoicesº and detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. In these excerpts, Gagliano writes about how the pea plant responds to acoustic vibrations to locate water
10+ min |
January 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Wild And Nutritious
Gaithi, a tuber variety that grows in the hills of Uttarakhand, has both nutritive and medicinal properties
2 min |
January 01, 2019
Down To Earth
The Right Pill
Africa will be setting up its first agency to check the spread of spurious drugs
3 min |
January 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Reign Over Rain
Rainfall deficit can be a challenge as well as an opportunity. Last year, Dhanbad faced a rainfall deficit of 60 per cent. EKLAVYA PRASAD narrates his personal experience of catching rainwater where it falls in his home, Uttarayan. By constructing rainwater harvesting structures, Uttarayan not only showed the way to address urban water scarcity, it also helped recharge groundwater with 1.06 million litres of rainwater
4 min |
January 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Try Some Salt, Fresh And Seasoned
Uttarakhand's age-old flavoured salts loaded with micronutrients are not only a healthy option, but can also tickle your taste buds
3 min |
January 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Corridor Catharsis
The proposed Similipal-Satkosia wildlife corridor in Odisha can be connecting link for the survival of endangered species. But mining activities need to be eliminated
3 min |
January 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Anthropocene In The Arctic
A behind the scenes account of how the scientific community came to terms with the changing landscape of the Arctic
3 min |
January 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Who Is Economically Secular?
The rich have the chance to get richer in an economic crisis, while the poor face the prospect of sinking deeper in poverty
2 min |
February 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Conflict Of Diet
It's not just fragmented corridors that take elephants to farms. They get drawn towards crops that improve their state of mind and well-being
3 min |
February 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Good Old Sap
Gums secreted by trees are a treasure trove of nutrition and have been used by communities in making seasonal delicacies
3 min |
February 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Whose Waste Is It?
Producers are shifting their plastic recovery responsibility to other companies
3 min |
February 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Commons No More
Odisha government is setting up land banks to lure industries and investments. In the rush, it is alienating people from the commons. ISHAN KUKRETI travels to some of the areas worst hit by the government-sponsored land grab.
9 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Rise After The Fall
Sikkim, once the world's largest producer of large cardamom, is trying to regain its lost glory. Can it achieve the feat in the face of a changing climate?
6 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Save The Cow Mother
Oxytocin is given to women during and after childbirth to save their lives from blood loss. But the government is planning to restrict its use as it is illegally given to cattle to increase milk production.
4 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Deluge Of The Century
Kerala's worst flood since 1924 reinforces how local environmental degradation and lack of disaster preparedness can make extreme weather events deadly.
9 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Where India Fears To Tread
Even rich nations are using compulsory .licences to ensure cheaper life-saving drugs for public healthcare unlike India.
2 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Bizarre, Serious, Jocular
Janaki Lenin captures the animal (and human) world in all its mystique and charm.
2 min |
September 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Drowning In Debris
Construction and demolition waste is piling up across India. Regulations are in place, but recycling is yet to gain momentum.AVIKAL SOMVANSHI breaks down the cartouche of waste mismanagement
9 min |
June 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Why We Need A Circular Economy
Reusing products is not only necessary for a sustainable future, but also makes business sense
4 min |
June 16, 2019
Down To Earth
Crisis Management
Jared Diamond's latest book espouses that nations can come out of a crisis just the way people do Ishan Kukreti
3 min |
July 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Curbing True Lies
The answer may not be to enact laws to ban fake news, as Singapore has recently done.
3 min |
July 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Scorcher
Heat waves have swept 23 Indian states and union territories claiming lives and throttling livelihoods. They are breaching boundaries across the world and are also becoming more intense. What can we do to cope with it?
10+ min |
July 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Wild Delight
Sohphie, a sweet-and-sour fruit, marks the arrival of spring in Meghalaya. It is relished raw as well as in pickles Shalini Dhyani.
3 min |
July 01, 2019
Down To Earth
The Next Ten To Go Dry
Bengaluru, Beijing, Mexico City and Istanbul are some of the cities that are headed towards Day Zero.
9 min |
March 15, 2018
Down To Earth
Urban Deserts
An estimated 400 million people currently live in cities with perennial water shortage. The number is slated to go up to 1 billion by 2050 due to rising urban population and the impact of climate change.
4 min |
March 15, 2018
Down To Earth
Let Cauvery Be
Deforestation, urbanisation, illegal mining and dumping of effluents along the river has left the basin battered and bruised. Decades of degradation has led to an unprecedented crisis for the 15 million who live on its banks.Jitendra travels along the course of one of India’s biggest rivers to understand why its level hit a record low this year
10 min |
August 01, 2019
Down To Earth
One Tool To Track It All
Can the humongous online data generated in the job guarantee scheme be a real time index for rural distress?
4 min |
August 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Nowhere To Flow
Over 60 years after the country got its first plan to rejuvenate the rivers, not a single basin has been spared from over-exploitation
7 min |
August 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Time To Talk
Gap in communication between India and neighbouring Nepal is an endemic problem that worsens Bihar floods
4 min |