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
26-year-old Puri youth leads Odisha’s green revolution
Soumya Ranjan Biswal, the 26-year-old founder of Odisha Paryavaran Sanrakshan Aviyan, has mobilised local communities to protect ecosystems, promote mangrove restoration and Olive Ridley turtle conservation, and organise events to combat sea pollution.
Farmers’ dilemma: How cooperation can address water security
In India's dry regions, farmers face a tough choice – work together on crops or risk losing everything. Cooperation is the key for farm prosperity given serious water shortages in these areas.
Kerala farmers prefer local plants over fences to ward off tuskers
Even as the Kerala government installs and plans more beehive fences to curb human-animal interactions, villagers in Attappadi taluk say that a local bean crop is more effective than the fences.
Flood-resistant houses provide sanctuary to Kerala villagers
Project Bhoomika, a social initiative to provide homes for those affected by the floods in Kerala’s Alappuzha district, enables residents to feel safe during the state’s torrential monsoon.
How one woman became the water guardian of a Gujarat village
Payal Ben Vikram Bhai Patel, a ‘bhujal jankar’ in Bhunav, Gujarat, is transforming her village through grassroots water conservation efforts. Overcoming challenges, she educates and empowers her community to secure a sustainable water future.
Hanging solar fences mitigate human-elephant conflicts in Kerala
As traditional methods of beating drums, digging trenches and building concrete walls proved ineffective in reducing human-animal interactions, Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department has installed hanging solar fences that deter elephants from entering villages.
Ex-poacher turns messiah for the Royal Bengal tiger
An ex-poacher’s conservation efforts help mitigate the human-animal conflict in the Sundarbans.
Women come to mangrove rescue in the Sundarbans
An all-woman group creates a mangrove forest in the Sundarbans to save it from climate disasters.
Combating desertification and drought in Chhattisgarh
This initiative of Transform Rural India and Hindustan Unilever Foundation is working to restore land and water ecosystems in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh by layering scientific principles while planning and executing local development plans.