Tag: Environment

One of the world’s rarest whales lives in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Trump administration wants to expand oil and gas drilling that scientists fear could push the giant mammal to extinction. Endangered Rice’s whales live their entire lives in the gulf, where they’re vulnerable to vessel strikes, noise pollution, oil spills, and climate...

Jungle cats (Felis chaus) are found across diverse habitats, from grasslands and wetlands to deserts. They’re present across Asia, with large populations in India and Nepal, among others. The IUCN Red List lists the species as being of ‘least concern’. This has led to a “misconception that they are doing fine”, Kathan Bandyopadhyay, a postdoctoral...

The story so far: Microplastics, especially nylon fibres, seem to be present rather sparsely in Chennai’s beach sediments but could still wreak long-term ecological damage, new research has cautioned. A study by researchers at V.O. Chidambaram College in Thoothukudi examined the abundance, sources, and ecological risks of microplastics from beach sediment samples from 15 sites...

Updating its climate goals, India has pledged that by 2035, 60% of its installed electric capacity will comprise of non-fossil sources. It also aims to reduce by 47% the intensity of emissions per unit of GDP from 2005 level and to increase its carbon sink to 3.5 billion tonnes – 4 billion tonnes. These targets...

Chasing an endless summer, one shorebird species undertakes a gruelling annual journey from the Arctic to the tip of South America and back — a feat increasingly fraught with peril. The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world’s most remarkable travellers, but its population has plunged 95% in four decades due to a...

In the 2026-27 budget, the outlay for the PM-KUSUM scheme nearly doubled to Rs 5,000 crore, signalling the government’s renewed emphasis on increasing solar power production centred on India’s farmers. Specifically, the scheme aims to provide energy and water security to farmers, enhance incomes, and decarbonise the farm sector through decentralised solar pumps and power...

World Frog Day on March 20 celebrates the role of frogs, the world’s most numerous amphibians. They live at the interface between freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, eat insects and in turn get eaten by other vertebrates, and are thus crucial in converting insect biomass into vertebrate biomass. Losing them can mean a boom in insects...

From the jet fuel used in bombing raids to acrid smoke from burning oil depots, the conflict in West Asia is inflicting a significant toll on nature and the climate. US and Israeli aircraft use a considerable amount of fuel reaching the Gulf and flying sorties over Iran, said Benjamin Neimark at the Queen Mary...

A new study by scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), published in NPJ Natural Hazards, examines the August 5, 2025 flash flood that destroyed Dharali village in Uttarakhand and killed six people. It sheds light on how warming temperatures affect glaciers, especially exposed ice patches on retreating glaciers, and highlights the need to...

In the industrial town of Morbi in Gujarat, the air usually hums with the roar of gas-fired kilns producing millions of square metres of ceramic tiles. Today, however, nearly a quarter of the town’s ceramic units have gone silent. Nearly a thousand kilometres away in Ludhiana, Punjab, one of India’s largest hosiery and knitwear clusters...