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.
Environment
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.
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.
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.
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.
Want bumper paddy harvest? Breed fish, say Bihar farmers
Digging ponds to breed fish as a livelihood brings multiple benefits to Patna farmers - fish pond water for irrigation, reduced use of chemicals and reverse migration to name a few.
A seed bombing eco-guerrilla wages war for green cover in rural Odisha
Growing up in a family of nature lovers, environmental degradation always upset journalist and docu-maker Subhransu Satpathy. Now the self-trained ecologist is on a mission to increase rural Odisha’s greenery with an ancient Japanese technique.
Cost-effective jalkunds help Manipur’s farmers tide over water woes
With climate-induced erratic rainfall affecting agriculture, the farmers of Manipur turn to jalkunds – low-cost water harvesting structures that go beyond irrigation needs and double their income.
Assam’s soil erosion worsening with climate change and floods
With intensifying monsoons and deepening soil erosion, Assam is becoming one of India’s states most vulnerable to climate change, hurting food production and livelihoods in the process.
Devastating floods the latest woes for Odisha’s farmers
Already battered by cyclones, Odisha farmland is now hit by floods with its farmers facing massive financial losses and hoping for government compensation.