The world is consuming too much energy and materials to sustain itself and the global community must summon the political will to tackle a whole raft of challenges, from mineral extraction to Waste recycling to the more than 200 toxic chemicals entering the blood of foetuses, the head of a United Nations commission warned today. The central question is “how to achieve green and equitable growth and development for a growing...

The recent high-profile cobalt radiation exposure case in Delhi is a warning signal for bigger disasters waiting to happen. While the reported incident is not commonplace, India is home to a large and rapidly growing inventory of hazardous Waste. Much of this is handled by the poor in an extremely crude manner without observing any safety norms. Part of this hazardous Waste is even dumped in landfill sites where many...

A couple of years ago a colleague came into my office with what he thought was a definite typographic error: “It says that India won only three medals in the Olympics; that cannot be right — there is a billion people in India.” I had to break it to him that this was actually the most medals India ever won in a single Olympic game. India has an average of...

The Cobalt-60 radiation tragedy at Mayapuri in Delhi has unearthed many skeletons, which some seem to be desperate to hide. There is already a life lost, and maybe others irrevocably damaged, while everyone is busy hurling accusations at each other. This is a typical response. Instead, we need to examine the systemic problems that this incident has indicated. While those who were negligent must be punished, there are many questions...

Visitors making their way along the muddy track leading to the Gossainbarie tea estate in India's north-eastern Assam state will be greeted by huge mounds of cow dung, rotting water hyacinth, as well as and fish and meat Waste. But this is no cause for alarm - the tea-estate has gone organic and is following the principles of India's ancient plant medicine Vriksh Ayurveda. "This is our fertiliser because we don't...