Environment

Climate change is impacting the world. It is the poorest who suffer the most. Yet often rural Indians are leading the way in sustainable advances and trialling schemes that – if rolled out on a macro scale – can create real change in the environment.

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Ladakh’s Chipko: Mothers out on streets to save ‘sacred’ juniper trees

Women of Hanupatta high up in the Himalayas man checkpoints to stop felling and smuggling of juniper trees that are much in demand for their aroma.

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Ills of eucalyptus drive Odisha tribals back to legacy crops

In southern Odisha farmers are switching from water-guzzling eucalyptus trees to diversified farming of traditional crops to boost soil fertility, crop yield, household income and dietary diversity.

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Money blooms in India’s ‘flower village’ of Nikamwadi in Maharashtra

Farmers have almost abandoned water-thirsty sugarcane for more colourful, and profitable, crops – marigold and chrysanthemum – which fetch them around Rs 10 lakh a year.

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A new platform helps farmers in Jharkhand earn money from carbon projects

At a time when adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture are apparent, a new carbon finance platform promotes climate resilient agriculture in Jharkhand and helps farmers access climate finance.

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Jungle Warriors: Odisha women set up jungle huts to save forests

Women in Nayagarh district’s villages start jungle kutirs that serve as a resource hub where they gather and make plans to protect jungles as also individuals’ forest rights.

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Rainwater Harvesting: How a parched village catches rain to prosper

Six years ago, farmers of drought-hit Hottal migrated to the cities to earn their livelihood. But thanks to rainwater harvesting, underground aquifers are full and they’re now growing three organic crops a year.

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Where waste ‘lights up’ villages

While waste disposal is a huge problem – moved from neighbourhoods to dump yards – villages in Tamil Nadu are turning their wet waste into biogas to generate electricity.

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The fascinating story of a bank manager who caught snakes to save nature

If a snake is sighted in Gandhinagar, Pradip Khemchand Solanki is the go-to man – the self-trained serpent catcher who has rescued over 1,600 of the slithery beasts so far.

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Vanishing vultures find friends for their survival

Five Baiga tribal youths track, count and protect the critically endangered Indian long-billed vultures at their roosting site in Aurapani village of Chhattisgarh.