The world needs to act quickly to counter the erosion of species. The task is particularly important for India, one of the 12 mega-biodiversity centres.  May 22 marked the International Day for Biological Diversity. It commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that day in 1992. As of December 2009, exactly 192 countries and the European Commission were signatories to it. This year has been declared the...

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on Wednesday decided not to accept the World Bank’s aid for the tiger conservation programme. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, chaired by Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh. Though Mr. Ramesh was keen on accepting the aid, conservationists were against the move. “Personally, I was very keen that the World Bank provide...

Climate change is forcing humans and tigers in the Sunderbans delta of eastern India into closer contact - and attacks on people are on the rise. The BBC's Chris Morris reports. They are magnificent, but deadly. Rarely seen, hidden in the jungles. But now the Royal Bengal tigers which roam through the vast mangrove forests at the mouth of the river Ganges are coming into closer contact, and conflict, with humans....

KEY TRENDS    • Extreme temperature shocks reduce farmer incomes by 4.3 percent and 4.1 percent during kharif and rabi respectively, whereas extreme rainfall shocks reduce incomes by 13.7 percent and 5.5 percent *&    • It is estimated that to cover 50 percent (5 million ha) of the total acreage under rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) in India, about 60000 Turbo Happy Seeders and 30000 super SMS fitted combines will be required; at present, there are only about 3000...