Science
Down To Earth
The life of water
A THREE-PART FILM SERIES THAT LOOKS AT ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY OF WATER IN INDIA THROUGH A SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRISM, HIGHLIGHTING THE NATURAL RESOURCE'S INTEGRAL LINK TO AGRICULTURE, HEALTH AND POLITICS
4 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Rays of change
From dark nights to uninterrupted electricity, rooftop solar has brought independence, health and prosperity to a Maharashtra village
3 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
FATAL NEGLECT
A spate of child deaths from contaminated cough syrup exposes deep flaws in India's drug oversight
5 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
In unsettled state
Battered by disasters, land- scarce Uttarakhand must relocate villages deemed unsafe. Forestland is the only available option, but the state faces resistance from forest department
5 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Battle for reefs
Scientists are helping corals fight back against warming seas
10 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Green shoots in wreckage
Even with deepening ecological collapse, from vanishing species to fractured habitats, signs of hope emerge
3 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Back to the roots
Over 200 tribal villages in Madhya Pradesh are turning to forests to restore food security, breaking free from years of market dependence
5 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
How to slash a drug price by 97 per cent
Rulings that bar patent extensions on flimsy grounds by drug giants are opening the gates to dramatically cheaper generic medicines
4 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
TAINTED FLOW
Panipat shows an overreliance on groundwater even as residents remain wary of its contamination due to untreated discharge of textile recycling wastewater
3 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Wetland walks
Thiruvananthapuram's Vellayani-Punchakkari wetland turns into a climate classroom to help people learn about local biodiversity, agriculture and practices that harm them
2 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Flushed and forgotten
Poor containment systems, weak monitoring and illegal dumping have turned Uttar Pradesh's faecal sludge handling into an environmental ticking bomb
4 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Let soil live
IT IS just a start, but the message is loud and clear. At the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi this October, “Motion 007: Soil Security Law” was presented for formal voting, aiming to give soil security the urgent legal recognition it requires.
2 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
To do or not to do
AS I write this, there is massive churning in the world—not the kind that makes headlines, but deeper undercurrents: collisions of powerful forces working against each other. What will emerge as the victor? At this point, the only certainty is uncertainty.
3 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
FADING REEFS
Warm-water corals are the first major ecosystem to collapse in a rapidly warming planet. Scientists are racing to save them using cutting-edge technologies, from preserving spawn to breeding hardier varieties, but admit their efforts may fall short unless global temperature rises are limited to below 1.5°C.
5 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Emphasis on rebuilding Gaza post-truce
ON OCTOBER 10, Israel and Palestine declared a ceasefire after a two-year war that led to the deaths of thousands of people and led to mass displacement and a famine in the disputed Gaza strip.
1 min |
November 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Collective denial
A decade on from the Paris Agreement, countries are planning more fossil fuel production than before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
BUILT TO BINGE
Over the past few decades, food companies have exploited basic human instincts to peddle ultra-processed products. Engineered to hijack the brain's reward system, these foods are silently fuelling a new addiction epidemic, and driving rising rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Urgent policy action is needed to reclaim control over our food environment.
10+ min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Another farmer quits
THIS DUSSEHRA, Pitabasha did not go for the customary sighting of the Indian Roller, or tiha, as it is called in Odia. The bird is believed to grant wishes, and every year thousands of people flock to farms, fields and forests hoping to glimpse it and make a wish. But the 30-year-old farmer from Matupali village in Odisha stayed back. From that day, he also stopped calling himself a farmer.
2 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
What the H-1B visa angst reveals about India
It is odd that India strenuously promotes the exodus of its tech talent while failing to foster innovation at home
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
REDUCED TO INSIGNIFICANCE
On October 12, the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 20 years. Activists who monitor the Act, and former information commissioners, say that amendments by successive governments have rendered the law toothless. As per Central Information Commission's latest annual report (2023-24), the number of RTI applications rejected in the year was over 67,615—the highest ever. BHAGIRATH curates a conversation on what went wrong with the law that was sought to bring transparency and accountability in governance.
10+ min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
'Depopulation would mean fewer people contributing to advancement of knowledge'
Trends show that in a few decades, global population will begin to shrink. Once depopulation starts, no one knows how to stop it in a sustained way, write DEAN SPEARS and MICHAEL GERUSO, associate professors of economics, University of Texas at Austin, US, in their recent book, After the Spike. The authors, who are also economic demographers, argue that population decline will be detrimental to global progress and that a smaller population would not necessarily be better for the environment. In an interview with ADITYA MISRA, they say that the time to talk about depopulation is now because the search for a solution could take decades. Excerpts:
5 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Rebirth of Sukapaika
A cardiologist revives a dying river in Odisha with help from 425 riparian villages
2 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Monsoon withdrawal stalls after early start
AFTER UNLEASHING unusually heavy spells of rain across northwest India, the southwest monsoon began withdrawing three days earlier than normal, on September 14.
1 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Despair follows deluge
As floodwaters recede in Punjab, communities are left with ruined fields, lost livelihoods and an uncertain future. VIVEK MISHRA travels through the seven flood-hit districts to gauge the scale of the crisis.
6 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Bone dry to soaking wet
Farmers in Marathwada were ill-prepared for the intense rainfall that hit the perennially water-starved region.
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
UNWILLING TO SHARE?
The National Biodiversity Authority has disbursed less than 27 per cent of money it received from companies and traders to beneficiary communities since 2008-09
3 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Trump: regime change, not climate change
DONALD TRUMP has spoken from the global pulpit. Speaking at the 80th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), he has called climate change a “big con” and by association, all of us, who advocate for urgent action, charlatans. In his rant, he berated Europe for its green energy transition, saying it leads to high costs that would kill growth. He dismissed the science of climate change and went on to say that coal was clean. But I am not writing this to demean your intelligence and to explain why Trump is wrong. We know the reality of climate change as extreme weather events tear across our world, bringing with them economic devastation and human tragedy.
3 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
AHEAD OF HER TIME
From changing ideas about how humanity perceives its closest cousins to pioneering innovative ways of research, Goodall was a trailblazer
2 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Himalayan states reel even as monsoon ends
EVEN AS the 2025 southwest monsoon began withdrawing from western Rajasthan on September 14-three days ahead of its normal date and the earliest in the past 10 years-the Himalayan states continue to be battered by heavy rainfall and flooding.
1 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
A generation in protest
ON SEPTEMBER 1, there were 30 anti-government protests globally, according to Carnegie's global protest tracker. In the 12 months prior to this, the world witnessed 159 anti-government protests in 71 countries. What defines these protests is an overwhelming participation from youth. “The proportion of people willing to participate in demonstrations has increased to its highest levels since the 1990s, and the number of protests has also risen in this period,” says a Unicef report. Massive protests have caused change in regimes in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
2 min |