Devastating Floods - That Unite Assam–Meghalaya with Northern Bangladesh

As the devastating flood embraces vast areas of Assam (in northeast India) and Bangladesh, the mighty Brahmaputra comes to the focus again as the lone male river after originating in Tibet that flows through both the countries before culminating in the Bay of Bengal. Incessant rains for many days in the third week of June 2022 had inflated all the tributaries of Brahmaputra and it ended up inundating over one million hectares of land affecting millions of people in both the South Asian developing countries. Nava Thakuria apprises us about some developments in this regard.

Initiatives Related to Women’s Health and Nutrition - With Local Technologies, Skilling, Rescue, and Relief

Vishwadeep Trust is registered with the NGO Darpan portal of NITI Aayog in the areas of nutrition, food and agriculture, and renewable energy for post-harvest management as it impacts the shelf life and nutritional aspects. The Trust is named after the founder’s (Neha Upadhyaya) grandmother Smt. Deepraji Upadhyaya and Mahapandit Vishwanath Upadhyaya. Vishwadeep Trust’s work is mostly focussed on rural India and victims of flash floods and migration-affected people. Their findings suggest that rural women have limited access to productive resources, service education and employment opportunities while experiencing excessive workload and limited decision-making power. Neha Upadhyaya throws light on her vivid journey in this article.

Environmental Governance in India - Issues, Concerns and Opportunities

In this article, Biba Jasmine highlights how India maintains a cordial balance between its rich traditional heritage and modernity without negatively impacting the environment. But, she also feels that technological advances alone or smart governance alone may not be able to solve the fundamental problem that environmental governance must address. While environmental governance is becoming more comprehensive, it is clear that the path and pace of development are constantly redefining the problems it faces.

DWMPL Promoting Sustainable Waste Management, Recycling, and Disposal Methods

Deshwal Waste Management Private Limited (DWMPL) is one of the leading single-point recyclers of e-waste, battery waste, oil waste and plastic in India. The company primarily focuses on the recycling of e-waste, used batteries, plastic, oil, and other waste products from households and industries in an efficient and environment-friendly manner. Here, we are in conversation with Mr Raj Kumar - CEO, DWMPL for TerraGreen.

Sunshine Story of a Woman’s Journey to Becoming a Chief Sustainability Officer

Ram Ramprasad presents an inspirational fictional story with factual information of a girl who devoted her life to the cause of promoting sustainability, renewable energy use, and safeguarding biodiversity. Read about her tryst with sustainability.

Cleaning Yamuna River Learning from International Examples

This insightful article by Sonia Grover and Charu Bhanot is an outcome of literature survey done for a project for two basins-Yamuna and Musi rivers. The article talks about the challenges and reflections from best practices at international scale that could be used as learning to improve water quality of the basins.

Enactus Kirori Mal Foster a Greener Future with JanBhoomi

Enactus Kirori Mal is a student chapter of the international non-profit organization ‘Enactus’, striving to formulate and implement social business modules for the economic upliftment of underprivileged communities. Guided by educators and supported by business leaders, Enactus Kirori Mal akes a kind of entrepreneurial approach that empowers people to be a part of their own success. With over 0 members, their team currently operates three projects: Project Dor, Project Syahi, and Project JanBhoomi.

Creating An Educational Ecosystem For A Circular Economy

Concepts and ideas in this article by Ram Ramprasad embellish the NEP 2020, and are not contradictory. Individuals, companies, and leaders at all levels must embrace that addressing climate change and building a circular economy is of paramount importance. Training and education of the youth is the quickest enabler. Creating the right ecosystem for education and training of our youth is the need of the hour.

Light Pollution Can Disorient Monarch Butterflies

Biologists say night-time light pollution can interfere with the remarkable navigational abilities of monarchs, which travel as far as Canada to Mexico and back during their multi-generational migration. Researchers found that butterflies roosting at night near artificial illumination such as a porch or streetlight can become disoriented the next day because the light interferes with their circadian rhythms. Artificial light can impede the molecular processes responsible for the butterfly's remarkable navigational ability and trigger the butterfly to take wing when it should be resting. Even a single light can throw off the butterfly's internal compass. Besides planting milkweed in the garden, people interested in helping monarch butterflies might want to turn off the porch light.

Microplastics In The Ganga River How Dangerous Is The Situation?

Microplastics are recognized as a main source of marine pollution. The plastic products and waste materials dumped in the Ganga River break down and are eventually broken down into micro particles and the river finally transports large quantities downstream into the ocean. Untreated sewage from many cities along the Ganga River’s course, industrial waste and religious offerings add pollutants into the river as it flows through numerous thickly inhabited cities. In this article, Dr Rina Mukherji talks about two recent studies that have revealed the high prevalence of microplastics in the Ganga River basin, and pointed to the risks involved to freshwater biodiversity in the region.

Car Sharing The Perfect Solution To A Guilt-Free Holiday

Car sharing is helping to protect the environment. This article takes you through the benefits of sharing your vehicle with other people in different destinations.

Mindful Travel With Rare For Better Planet And People

Call it green, eco-friendly, sustainable, responsible or regenerative tourism, here are the hotels in the Indian Subcontinent where the emphasis is given to taking a stand to better the planet and people. The following article has been authored by Shobhana Jain, Head of Sustainability, RARE India, which is a community of some of the finest conscious luxury boutique hotels, palace stays, wildlife lodges, homestays, and retreats in the Indian Subcontinent.

Tharu Tribe of Dudhwa A Remarkable Example of Human-Wildlife Coexistence

In this article, Mudit Gupta takes us through his vivid experiences during his service in Dudhwa where he got an opportunity to understand Tharu community and engaged with them on wildlife conservation aspects.

Saving Water and Reducing Waste

Evonik Opens its First Zero Liquid Discharge Plant in India

Purple Sunbird

Our Winged Guest

Pacific Northwest Wildfires

Altering Air Pollution Patterns across North America

An Insight into CSR Funds for Education By India's Top Companies

A four-decade-old school is run by an old couple in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh on personal savings and donations. During the lockdown, they had no option than discontinuing classes. Students did not have any laptops, tablets or smartphones. Teachers visited respective households, but the outcome was no match to the routine. Since then, they have been struggling to set up a computer centre. Government schemes come with their own set of challenges. They have heard of CSR funding but don’t know whom to approach. Which company will support them? How challenging will it be? Will they even consider a non-governmental school? Ritika Mahajan and Monica Sareen tried to explore some of these questions by analysing CSR reports of India’s top ten companies (based on market cap) from the last decade and interviewing experts. The article discusses their CSR budgets for education, significant projects, locations, governance, and associated challenges.

Automating the Process of Picking Cotton Project by Students of Lovely Professional University

D Dilip Kumar talks about his university project where the students tried to provide a solution to automate the process of picking cotton using the technology so that the manual intensive job could be automated and man hours could be saved—ultimately leading to the profits for the cotton growing farmer.

3Rs of Food Waste: Reduce, Rescue, and Redistribute A Couple in Malaysia Takes Innovative Action

Around the world, more than enough food is produced to feed the global population—but as many as 811 million people still go hungry, as per Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger. After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise again, affecting 9.9 per cent of people globally. From 2019 to 2020, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 161 million, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic, as per Action Against Hunger’s International Nutrition Security Policy. In this regard, Anita Khuller writes about a couple in Malaysia that started the What a Waste (WaW) initiative in 2018 to reduce food waste and poverty hunger.

Road To Contain Climate Change

In this article, Mr S Sundar and Mr Sharif Qamar say that roads and railways bind a nation and bring people together. They facilitate the achievement of SDGs, as without adequate mobility, SDGs cannot be achieved and sustained.

Impact Of Cruise Industry And Sea Vessels

In this article, Saurabh Somani gives us an overview of the major drawbacks and problems due to lack of awareness and international laws for large cruise vessels on oceans. As the tourism industry continues to vouch for cruise industry branding and promotion, the impact is evident as its influence on nature is evident in the form of climate change and unconditional weather conditions that the world is currently witnessing.

Any Baggage around Everything Genetically Modified!

Being a biotechnologist is fun when the discussion is just about lac operon, cosmid vectors, growing some organ in a lab or what it's like to be in tomorrow's business but not when I am asked why people are averse towards genetically modified food.

Sustainable Future for India

L&T Finance Raises its First ₹200 Crore Sustainability Linked Rupee Loan

Reporting Hope

For some years, we have been ringing the alarm bells on species that are fast disappearing. And rightly so, since awareness and realization may lead to turning the tide on tragedy. From early 2022, TerraGreen decided to forage for occasional stories of hope and happiness, also. Here is the second in the series from Benita Sen.

MGC's Mission: To Build and Secure a Sustainable Future

Dr Girija K Bharat is the Founder-Director of Mu Gamma Consultants Private Limited (MGC). Here, she is in an exclusive conversation with us for TerraGreen.

Pets

Great Stress Busters

Organic Farming in Sikkim

Sikkim became India's first '100 per cent organic' state in 2016. All farming in Sikkim is carried out without the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides, providing access to safer food choices and making agriculture a more environment-friendly activity. In this article, Onam Vaid says that to make the organic plan a success, Sikkim has brought all farmers on board by assuring them that organic produce would fetch higher prices. Certified organic farming requires stringent annual inspections by qualified inspectors from accredited certification bodies.

Offshore Finally Makes Headway in India

In this article, Sapna Gopal says despite India taking time to foray into offshore wind, the country is finally ready to take the plunge. Industry experts too agree that the time is right for it to do so.

Nature's Dangers

The natural world is the most beautiful and wondrous thing to explore, but it must be respected at all times. This is not just to protect the delicate balance of nature, but also because it can be a dangerous place, filled with unforgiving climates, harsh landscapes, and deadly creatures. All of these can be avoided with the help of expert knowledge and proper planning, though the same cannot be said for natural disasters.

Cultivation of Marketable Mushroom

This article has been written by Neha Upadhyay (co-authored by Aarti Rajput, Sonam Angmo, Eshey Tundup, and Nawang Gyalchan), under the project “Solar technology for post-harvest processes and sustainable agriculture for income enhancement of tribal communities living in Cold Desert Region of Ladakh Kargil" under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.