-The Hindu ‘It will damage Western Ghats’ Tamil Nadu has made clear to the Supreme Court that it does not want the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) to be set up in a sensitive ecological zone in the Western Ghats at great cost to wildlife, biodiversity, and by ignoring the local opposition and public agitations to the project. The State said the project would be a source of distress to the shy tigers and...

-The Hindu A wide variety of spices and fruits grown in the coffee field diversifies the income of tribal farmers Not too long ago, Surya Chhautia was ready to give up on a 100-acre coffee plantation in Golur village in Odisha’s Koraput district. The plantation had been lying unattended, yielding little. But today, Chhautia, 39, from the Valmiki community, is leading a campaign to add another 100 acres to the plantation and to...

-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 %),...

-Livemint.com The capricious nature of groundwater has resulted in so much exploitation and overuse that we now have a consistent crisis. Presenting a roadmap for groundwater governance and information transparency using technology India is a groundwater civilization. Almost all Indians use groundwater, directly or indirectly, each day. This tradition goes back more than 2,000 years. India is criss-crossed with the most elegant wells that tap into the shallow aquifer. The oldest wells...

-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...