-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: About 40 busloads of citizens die on the capital's roads every year but the deaths do not shock anyone and governments over the years have done little to stop it. In the six years from 2008 to 2013, more than 12,300 people died in road accidents here. Last year alone, there were 1,820 deaths. An assessment of road accidents done by Centre for Science and Environment...

-The Hindu   We need freeways, but we also need forests. Crimes against women have been constantly in the news. But crimes against nature remain largely unreported. Given the current climate, with the Intelligence Bureau claiming that non-governmental organisations like the crusading international environmental group Greenpeace, are detrimental to India's progress, and with the ubiquitous ‘foreign hand' making a serendipitous comeback, such crimes are likely to become invisible, noticed only by those who have...

-PSainath.org   The adivasi women of Edamalakudi, Kerala's remotest panchayat, have formed a headload workers' group, helped light up their villages with solar power, and practice group farming in wild elephant territory. All are Muthavan tribals. Almost all are members of Kerala's extraordinary anti-poverty and gender justice movement - Kudumbashree. They are also neighbours of Chinnathambi, the keeper of the Wilderness Library. When 60 women in Edamalakudi carried about a hundred solar...

-The Indian Express   The Himalayas need special policy attention, given their strategic importance and unique vulnerabilities   The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted increased global warming, with a 1.5-2.0 degree rise in surface temperature by the end of the 21st century. This will not only make coastal regions vulnerable to sea-level rise but also make the sensitive Himalayan ecosystem more vulnerable. The increase in temperature will...

-BBC   It's early morning and local commuters are queuing up for tickets at the Kirti Nagar railway station in the Indian capital, Delhi. Along the tracks, another crowd is gathering - each person on his own, separated by a modest distance. They are among the 48% of Indians who do not have access to proper sanitation. Coming from a slum close-by, they squat among the few trees and bushes along the railway tracks...