Environment Stories
War’s A Big Climate Changer, But Who Cares
Emissions at scale during conflicts are never talked about. Onus of tackling climate crisis cannot only be on the individual reducing his carbon footprint
Now IMD's 'feels-like' index to capture actual heat impact
Index provides information on impact of humidity on high temperature
The Himalaya’s Vanishing Snow?
Though it’s finally snowing in Uttarakhand, white mountaintops in winters are no longer guaranteed. Because two major weather systems, monsoon and Western Disturbance, have changed behaviour.
Why parents don't sleep in the night in this UP village
Drones. Trackers. Guns. Guards. Forest officials are pulling out all the stops to tackle a pack of predators that has killed 12 people, including 10 kids, striking fear and terror in rural Bahraich
Uprooted by the sea, left without livelihood
Coastal erosion is not only taking a toll on India’s shoreline but also on the communities that made their homes by the sea. Resettlement may provide safety from the waves, but replacing lost livelihoods becomes an uphill task, as some climate refugees in Odisha are finding out
To make drivers slow down for animals, this road 'turns red'
When a highway through the forests of a tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh went from two-lane to four-lane, traffic volumes and speeds. How would animals crossing the roads be protected?
Why a 100-metre rule has put India’s oldest mountains back in court
From a Supreme Court ruling to protests on the ground, a new definition of Aravalli Hills has triggered a debate over mining, ecology and enforcement, raising questions about whether legal clarity will strengthen protection or lead to destruction of India’s oldest mountain range
- Team TOI Plus
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
India knows where elephants cross. Why are trains still killing them?
Audits, parliamentary panels and ministries have flagged the same danger zones for years. Yet, elephants continue to die on tracks on the same stretches
- Rajesh Sharma
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
We Don’t Think, So We Can’t Breathe
Core causes of India’s air pollution crisis have been clear for 25 years: burning of biomass and coal. Still, the bickering continues. And the Delhi problem spreads to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad…
A Requiem For Goa
A reckless state govt is squandering Goa’s beauty, turning it all into realty. Violations across sectors, rampant construction, and hafta culture are killing a land locals are fighting to save
- Rajesh Menon
- TNN
Coast to hills, India is running out of clean air
Even as Delhi-NCR hogs the headlines, data shows the pollution crisis is widening, with new hotspots appearing from Goa to Guwahati
Plastic pollution could triple by 2040. New study offers four solutions
A new Pew model tracking 52 plastics and seven microplastic sources shows the crisis accelerating, with health and climate harms rising fast. It provides four interventions — reducing virgin plastic, redesigning materials, scaling reuse and boosting transparency — could reverse the trend
What breathing clean air taught a Delhiite about his own city
A Delhiite who once felt “used to the smog” returned after years in cleaner air — and his body revolted within seconds. His story captures a city where bad air is no longer a season but a condition of life
- Bansri Shah
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
When The Sky Tells Two Stories
Satellites helped separate India’s winter local haze from a distant volcanic plume. A dedicated atmospheric monitoring system would enable us to respond to each challenge on its own terms
How a ten-year-old elephant pushed three states into a stalemate
A routine alert has turned into a prolonged, multi-state exercise with no resolution in sight. Forest teams are ready to act, but the lack of a rehabilitation facility has halted the process. How does this end?
The Aravallis’ Death by Definition
SC must not fall for the trap of defining these ancient hills by height. It will severely fragment the range and open it up for expanded mining and real estate, dealing a blow to ecology
In Delhi’s winter of toxic air, anger is rising faster than the AQI
Delhi’s AQI has stayed locked in the “hazardous” zone for weeks, turning daily life into a health threat. This winter, the crisis feels different – not because the air is worse, but because citizens say they’ve had enough
- Bansri Shah
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
Why these projects across India that promise 'progress' are seeing protests
Not just India’s hills, hit hard in recent times by extreme weather events, pockets of flatlands across the country are also rising against what many call ‘construction sans conversation’, anxious about ecological damage, displacement and loss of local culture
COP In Cop Out Time
Climate meet in Brazil is taking place as govts and corporations are retreating from mitigation pledges. This would be disastrous and create a poorer & dangerous world. Developing nations must act for their own sake