-The Indian Express Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill: The government has sought to project the farm Bill as “creating an Ecosystem” where farmers will enjoy the “freedom of choice” to sell to anyone, anywhere in the country. On many occasions, it isn’t the law but what it appears to convey and the context in which it is framed that holds relevance. This certainly is the case with the...

-Down to Earth The food most associated with biodiversity loss also tends to also be connected to unhealthy diets across the globe As the global population has doubled to 7.8 billion in about 50 years, industrial agriculture has increased the output from fields and farms to feed humanity. One of the negative outcomes of this transformation has been the extreme simplification of ecological systems, with complex multi-functional landscapes converted to vast swaths...

-Down to Earth Water bodies have become even more critical in current times when cities are facing the challenge of rapid, unplanned urbanisation Lakes and wetlands are an important part of urban Ecosystem. They perform significant environmental, social and economic functions — from being a source of drinking water and recharging groundwater to supporting biodiversity and providing livelihoods. Their role becomes even more critical in the present context, when cities are facing the...

-The Hindu The Eastern Ghats, despite its rich bio-diversity, is often overlooked. Here’s a movement that aims to conserve it Despite being older than the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats, an ancient discontinuous low mountain range that spreads along the East coast of the Indian Peninsula, never got its due. The geographical extent of the Eastern Ghats is about 75,000 kilometres, spread over the states of Odisha (25 %),...

-Down to Earth Land use degradation creates ground for zoonotic disease like COVID-19 as the interaction and physical distance between animals and humans gets closer Land use change, which prepares the ground for zoonoses like the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), should be reversed urgently, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has said. Over 70 per cent of all natural, ice-free land in the world is affected by human use, according to...