Science
Down To Earth
Reluctant to share
Even three decades after panchayats received constitutional status, states across India seem unwilling to share power with them
3 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
GET THE BALANCE RIGHT
India currently relies on three major food crops—rice, maize and sugarcane—for ethanol production. Ethanol-blended petrol supports the country’s goals of carbon neutrality and energy sovereignty. But the transition to clean energy must not jeopardise food security.
6 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Brazil outbreak triggers poultry export bans
A TOTAL of 24 governments, including India, China, South Africa and the EU, announced a complete ban on poultry products from Brazil by the end of May, after the Latin American country confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza.
1 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
TRICKY TRAJECTORY
Indirect emissions from land-use changes, overexploitation of water resources must not be ignored in the pursuit of biofuel
6 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
MIND THE TRADE-OFF
In times of climate change, a careful roadmap must be drawn to plan how much of food crops can be diverted to fuel production
4 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
May mayhem
The 2025 monsoon arrived a week early and raced across India in May, breaking records with its speed and intensity
5 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
LOST IN MAIZE
Ethanol-blending programme and its spiralling impacts on food inflation, nutrition availability
3 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
World at risk of losing ice sheet, glaciars
THE ANTARCTIC ice sheet, which has the biggest potential for sea-level rise upon melting, may be at or very close to a tipping point, says a study published in Communications Earth and Environment on May 30.
1 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Artwork by nature
Once close to disappearance, Banda's shajar stone handicraft industry is on a revival path
4 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
World at risk of losing ice sheet, glaciars
THE ANTARCTIC ice sheet, which has the biggest potential for sea-level rise upon melting, may be at or very close to a tipping point, says a study published in Communications Earth and Environment on May 30.
1 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
THE BIG PICTURE
Restoring environmental flow in the Yamuna requires a comprehensive approach to watershed restoration, not just tackling the river's pollution
5 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
The gross deprived parameter
WHAT IS GDP?” Sukru Ojha, a resident of Koraput town in Odisha, asks in response to my question: “Do you know India’s GDP will soon surpass Japan's?” I have been following Ojha's life since 1996, when I first met him during a reporting assignment covering the severe drought that had gripped the region, one of the poorest in the country. Now 60, Ojha still lives on daily wages, and does not bother to know what GDP is all about.
2 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
LOOPHOLE PLUGGED
On May 16, 2025, while hearing a case based on a petition by Vanashakti, a Mumbai-based non-profit, which questioned the validity of development projects initiated without environmental clearance (EC), the Supreme Court struck down two executive instruments issued by the Union environment ministry allowing ex post facto ECs, or retrospective clearance granted after a project had begun construction or operation. The court also barred the Union government from issuing any “new version” of the instruments—a 2017 notification and a 2021 Office Memorandum. Legal experts tell Down To Earth the judgement not only upholds principles of environmental law, but also holds the government accountable for its role in safeguarding the country’s environment.
7 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
EU farmers protest Ukraine, Mercosur bloc trade deals
HUNDREDS OF farmers in Madrid, Spain, held protests on June 4 against cheap grain imports from Ukraine and other countries which, they said, had decreased food prices below production costs.
1 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
The mammoth in the patent system
Firms working on de-extinction of long vanished species are banking on wide patent protection to make colossal profit
4 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
The shape of water
Inspired by the idea of low-lying ponds at a sanctuary in the Thar, a Jodhpur environmentalist builds waterbodies in his village to allow the smallest of animals access to clean water
2 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Flood fix
Chennai is implementing sponge parks to mitigate waterlogging. But they may not be the best solution
3 min |
June 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Recycling Innovation: How UFlex Is Setting Global Benchmarks
India's first company to recycle PET, PE, and PP for food packaging
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
A NEW BUZZ
Like many countries, India is in the middle of a pollinator crisis. In several states, farmers now rent honeybees to secure a decent harvest. In areas where agriculture is nearly impossible due to shortage of natural pollinators, people are manually carrying out nature's most critical operation. This artificial substitution of pollinators raises new concerns. A report by
10+ min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Seed saviours
Seed banks managed by communities and non-profits are repositories of hundreds of indigenous climate-resilient crop varieties but need help in storage, technical aid and policy support to thrive
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Perilous proposal
Villages near Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve oppose plans to open yet another ecotourism zone in light of rising attacks by the big cats
4 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
SOUR GOODNESS
Leaves of madhu soleng, an easy-to-grow weed, are a great souring agent
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Broken lifeline
ON MARCH 13, 2020, Government of India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) released the latest life expectancy data of the country.
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
RESILIENT RURAL FUTURES
Ambuja Foundation Tackles Climate Vulnerability Head On ...
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Sustainable cycles
Women in Himachal Pradesh switch from plastic sanitary pads to reusable menstrual hygiene products for better waste management
2 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Uniting the Ecosystem: Empowering Smallholder Farmers and Solving India's Water Crisis
Smallholder farmers are key to solving India's water crisis, accounting for 86% of farming households. Agricultural consumption accounts for 75-90% of India's freshwater use.
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
WHO IS REALLY DEVELOPED
A new development metric ranks countries based on their living standards that can be scaled globally without breaking planetary limits
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
India’s CRISPR feat, with borrowed tools
ICAR has developed genome-edited varieties of rice, but has used patented CRISPR technology that will entail huge costs
4 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Ominous exemptions
Stockholm Convention sees a worrying trend of nations forcing exemptions on usage of chemicals that face a ban
3 min |
June 01, 2025
Down To Earth
MUNSHI IN POLICY
Literature is more relevant now than ever, as the world gets alienated and isolated because of machinated realities
4 min |