Bringing coffee back into the shade

With insufficient rains over the Western Ghats during this year’s southwest monsoon, there is a shortage of water in the reservoirs across the Cauvery in Karnataka. This has led to the flaring of the water sharing dispute with the lower riparian state of Tamil Nadu in the recent days. While this acrimony continues, eco-certification as a form of payment for ecosystem services is becoming popular in Kodagu district, so that coffee farmers protect the forests under which they grow their crop, thereby preserving the water flow into the Cauvery. These measures also help to maintain the climate resilience in the river’s catchment and command. MORE … 

B.B. Thammaiah in his coffee farm where the coffee plants are grown under native shade trees.

Crisis of imagination

Amitav Ghosh makes a profound statement in The great derangement. He says that individual action is not sufficient to deal with climate change. It needs collective effort, for which writers of fiction have to write about climate change. It has to become as much of a canvas as war is in fiction. MORE … 

Paradigm shift

In the 25 years since economic reforms was launched in India, the urban middle class has found a new economic and political voice. Environmental movements in which poor communities pitted their moral strength against the combined strength of the State and the industry got sidelined in the national mind space. As a result the iron triangle got stronger. MORE …

Changing climate threatens sacred groves

The sacred groves in the eastern coast of south India are a unique ecosystem. They represent tropical dry evergreen forests. Over the years the tree population in these forests have decreased by 30% and liana (woody climbers) have increased by 30%. While this could be an indication of climate change, it also indicates a decline in the ecosystem’s climate resilience. MORE … 

Puducherry leads in LED lighting revolution

Two years ago a programme for promoting LED bulbs for lighting launched in the tiny Puducherry (Pondicherry) has now grown into a national programme, with impact on energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reduction. MORE …

Keeping the woods lovely, dark and deep

The National Biodiversity Targets are an effective instrument for mainstreaming the concerns of biodiversity conservation into national policy and action. It can also help strengthen the economic wellbeing of the communities living in and around forests. MORE …

More smoke, less fire

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has become the official icon for the official environmental initiatives in India in the past two years. But is the assimilation of Gandhi complete? MORE …