The recent high-pressure tactics to introduce genetically engineered food crops in India are another rude reminder that Western agribusiness companies have a deeprooted strategy to obtain a stranglehold on India’s food and agriculture system. In a review of recent trends titled ‘Food Without Choice’ (The Tribune, November 1) Prof Pushpa M. Bhargava (who was nominated by the Supreme Court in the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee to protect safety concerns), an internationally...

Beijing had to take some harsh steps to reduce pollution ahead of last year's Olympic Games in the city. As the countdown for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi begins, here's some bad news. Delhi and its surroundings have some of the worst polluting zones in the country, according to a list of India's severely polluted industrial clusters released by the environment ministry on Thursday. Ghaziabad takes the third rank in...

Once the world's wettest places, Cherrapunji is getting up to 20% less rain every year - and is suffering water shortages. Residents say their heavenly abode in the clouds is hotter and drier than ever before - and they blame it on global warming. Cherrapunji - or Sohra in the local Khasi language - is located in the West Khasi Hills of India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya. "Never were there very...

Sahyadris have been documenting the changing climate for 40 years The latest joke among the Mahadeo Koli tribals living in the Bhimashankar area of Maharashtra’s Pune district is: “Ovni zali ka? (Have you transplanted your paddy?)” In the rain drenched Sahyadri range, where the main food crop is paddy, the unseasonal rains brought on by cyclone Phyan in late November have caused the harvested crop of fragrant Raibhog paddy to sprout...

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....