Data revealed in Parliament shows a high number of pending cases in the National Green Tribunal, a specialised statutory body dedicated to resolving environmental disputes. Together, all five benches of the NGT have over 5,000 cases pending in the courts, Kirthi Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change told…
On December 19, 2025, a Supreme Court bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar reiterated that the protection of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) was “non-negotiable”. The apex court also revised priority conservation areas of the GIB—14,013 square kilometres in Rajasthan and 740 square kilometres in Gujarat. These zones will have no…
Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), Monash University and Deakin University, Australia, have developed a cutting-edge nanoinjection drug delivery platform that has the potential to make breast cancer treatment safer and more effective. The approach creates a precise and sustained therapeutic system that minimises damage to healthy cells by combining nanoarchaeosome-based drug encapsulation with silicon nanotube (SiNT)-based…
Delhi’s air quality discourse has long been dominated by seasonal explanations such as farm fires, unfavourable meteorology, and pollution blowing in from outside the city. While these factors do influence short-term air quality, emerging evidence increasingly shows that Delhi’s pollution burden is now largely self-driven, with local sources playing a growing and persistent role. Among…
India’s latest budget allocates over ₹27 billion to fisheries but its focus on industrial growth overshadows the protection of natural ecosystems that sustain the country’s fish stocks. India is investing nearly 200 times more in extractive fisheries than in restoring the coastal ecosystems that protect the depleting fish population. The government’s expansionist approach risks…
The year ahead in numbers As we say goodbye to 2025, let’s delight in its numerical charms one final time. The year was unique this century as being a square number. 442 = 1936 452 = 2025 462 = 2116 Five 9s Six 8s. Six 7s. Six 6s. Four 5s. Six 4s. Four 3s. Four…
The President of India has approved a new rural employment and livelihood law. The Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–G RAM G) Bill, 2025, was passed by the Parliament on December 18 and approved by the President on December 21, bringing it into effect and ending the Mahatma Gandhi National…
Record numbers of sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates over the summer have led the Wildlife Trusts to declare 2025 “the year of the octopus” in its annual review of Britain’s seas. A mild winter followed by an exceptionally warm spring prompted unprecedented numbers of Mediterranean octopuses to take up residence along…
If the Geminids whetted your appetite for meteor showers, then you are in luck. This week it is the turn of the Ursids. Admittedly, they are nowhere near as plentiful as the Geminids, producing a maximum of just 10 meteors an hour, but there is a unique satisfaction to witnessing one of nature’s subtler events….
It was like a horror movie. The invisible polio virus would strike, leaving young children on crutches, in wheelchairs or in a dreaded “” ventilator. Each summer, the fear was so great that . Parents , afraid their child might be the next victim. A U.S. president paralyzed by polio called for Americans to to…