Science
Down To Earth
Popular distrust
THE WORLD seems to be going through a period of stasis despite facing an unfathomable polycrisis.
2 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
CONSERVE OR PERISH
Periyar Tiger Reserve has rewritten Indian conservation by turning poachers into protectors and conflict into coexistence
5 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
'Rivers need to run free'
From Tibet to West Bengal, the Brahmaputra is the pulse of communities and ecosystems along its course. But what are the risks the river faces through human interventions, particularly dams, discusses journalist, author and filmmaker SANJOY HAZARIKA in his new book, River Traveller.
4 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
India is facing up to its innovation lag
There are signs now that India is acknowledging the superior strides made by China in a frontier technology like Al
4 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
Competing concerns
What are the repercussions of the EU-Mercosur pact that have made European farmers protest against the free trade agreement?
4 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
From fryer to flight
Sustainable fuel made from used cooking oil can play a pivotal role in helping India achieve its aviation emission reduction goals. Measures to collect this oil must be revamped
4 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
ACCESS OPEN
An amendment to India's nodal forest conservation law opens up forests across India to commercial exploitation by the paper industry
6 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
DRINK FROM TAP CAN BE A REALITY
As cities across India struggle to supply safe piped water, Odisha offers a success story
2 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
GREAT DRYING
The Earth is hotter than at any point in the past 100,000 years, with 2023-25 becoming the warmest three-year period on record and also breaching the 1.5°C threshold for the first time. One fallout is dwindling freshwater.
10+ min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
Green redemption
Restoration of grasslands of Kerala's Pampadum Shola National Park, once dominated by invasive Australian wattles, see a return of streams and native species
1 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
Valuable lessons from two tree champions
Karnataka-based environmentalist Saalumarada Thimmakka, who died in November 2025, leaves behind several thousand trees that she had planted sheerly out of love, without expecting any returns.
2 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
Unexplored potential
Can tourism help communities in the Sundarbans cope with climate-induced loss and damage?
3 min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
WHAT LIES BENEATH
The deaths from contaminated water in Indore expose the shortsightedness of India's current water-supply model. Tackling the problem will require tighter regulation, better data and a sewage-first approach
10+ min |
February 01, 2026
Down To Earth
Bitter pill
THE WEB SERIES PHARMA EXPOSES HARSH TRUTHS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY, WHERE PROFIT OFTEN BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN HEALTH
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
CHAOS IN-DEFINITION
The Aravallis are perhaps India's most litigated hill range. More than 4,000 court cases have failed to arrest their destruction. The latest dispute concerns a narrow legal definition of this geological antiquity, much of which has been obliterated by mining and urban sprawl. While the Supreme Court has stayed its own judgement accepting that definition, it must see the underlying reality and help reconcile development and national security with conservation.
10+ min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BITS: INDIA
Indore has recorded 16 deaths and more than 1,600 hospitalisations between December 24 and January 6.
1 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
GUARANTEE EXPIRES
India's rural employment guarantee law is replaced with a centrally controlled, budget-capped scheme. Is this an attack on the right to work?
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BLOOM OR BANE
Surge of vibrant pink water lilies in Kuttanad, Kerala, provides socio-economic benefits, but the plant's ecological impacts must be understood
4 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
INVISIBLE EMPLOYER
Field and academic evidence shows sharp falls in casual agricultural employment at places where groundwater access declines
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Schemed for erasure
Does the VB-G RAMG Act address structural weaknesses long observed in MGNREGA's implementation?
10 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
School of change
An open school in Panagar, Madhya Pradesh, aims to protect children of tribal settlements from falling into the trap of addiction
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
PULSE OF RESILIENCE
As a climate-ready crop, cowpea shows potential for widespread use in India
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BITS GLOBAL
Britain recorded its hottest and sunniest year ever in 2025, the country's meteorological office said on January 2.
1 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Atomic juncture
A new comprehensive law opens up the nuclear sector to private players, while diluting disaster liability and safety provisions
6 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
MISMEASURE OF A MOUNTAIN
Earthquakes in the Aravallis provide a cautionary tale
7 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Barrel diplomacy
What US control of Venezuelan oil means for India and the world
5 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
India's poverty count
OME FEBRUARY, India will roll out its first National Household Income Sample Survey. The exercise will measure household incomes and, in doing so, estimate levels of poverty, or prosperity, across the country. In effect, the survey will prepare a balance sheet for Indian households. It will seek extensive information on incomes and expenditures of a household—from input and output costs of a farmer to a taxpayer’s payout-to-loan burdens, an informal worker’s days of work and income, and a hotel employee's earnings from tips. Spanning community groups, the survey will calculate household “profits” and assess the value of assets like land and farms. It will also assign monetary value to welfare benefits received, arriving at a final estimate of household income. Such income surveys, though being adopted in India for the first time, are in use in countries across the world, like the US, China and Bangladesh.
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
VOICE OF REASON
Why Madhav Gadgil could never be ignored in the land of landslides
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
JINALI MODY - ENTREPRENEUR
In September 2025, UN Environment Programme announced Mumbai-based Jinali Mody, founder of material-science startup Banofi Leather, as a Young Champion of the Earth.
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
IT'S AN ENDLESS BATTLE
A decade spent tackling waste still feels vanishingly small
2 min |