When a mountain is no longer a mountain In December 2025, the Supreme Court of India, acting on recommendations from expert bodies including the Union Ministry of Environment, the Forest Survey of India, and the Geological Survey of India, redefined the criteria for what constitutes a “mountain.” What might appear as a minor technical adjustment…
On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain…
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me…
P. Narayanan Unny, the third-generation farm er who rescued a near-extinct Navara rice and built the Navara Eco Farm to revive, organically cultivate and conserve the Indigenous rice variety, died at his ancestral home in Chittur, Palakkad, on December 9, 2025. He was 67. Unny is widely credited with not only bringing Kerala’s…
The Air Quality Index (AQI) has long served as a simple, public-facing tool to communicate daily air quality and the associated health risks. Standard AQI categories such as Good (0-50), Satisfactory (51-100), Moderate (101-200), Poor (201-300), and so on, are based on established scientific understanding of how pollution affects human health. Importantly, for most national…
BENGALURU: The Satcom Industry Association-India (SIA-India) has called for a threefold increase in the national space budget, creation of specialised manufacturing incentives and long-term funding frameworks for connectivity, navigation and earth observation as part of its recommendations submitted to the finance ministry, Department of Space (DoS) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre…
Malabar pit viper bites are widely considered insignificant, but emerging evidence shows they can cause severe local effects, coagulopathy and renal dysfunction. Current antivenoms show poor neutralisation against pit viper venoms, strengthening the case for species-specific or broader polyvalent antivenoms. Identification gaps, camouflage and nocturnal bite circumstances contribute to under-reporting and limited understanding of…
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading… Source link
Maddie MolloyClimate & Science reporter Getty Images The Geminid meteor shower – one of the most spectacular in the celestial calendar – is set to peak this weekend and astronomers say conditions could make for an especially striking show if weather permits. The meteors are visible all over the world, though people in the Northern…
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, has been named as a UNEP ‘Champion of the Earth’ for 2025, according to a statement by the UN body. Sahu has been awarded in the ‘Inspiration and Action’ category. The UNEP statement noted that Sahu is a pioneer in sustainable cooling and ecosystem restoration. Her…