-Down to Earth A total of seven Great Indian Bustards have died in 2022 due to electrocution A Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the Union government December 1, 2022, if a ‘Project Bustard’ could be launched on the lines of ‘Project Tiger’. The bench was hearing petitions throwing light on the critical situation of Great Indian Bustards (GIB) and their deaths due to electrocution from...

-The Telegraph Radhakamal Mukerjee: an ecological pioneer In 1922, a professor at Lucknow University named Radhakamal Mukerjee published a book called Principles of Comparative Economics. Reading the book one hundred years later, I was struck by the attention it paid to the impact of the natural environment on the social and economic life of Indian villages. Mukerjee was perhaps the first Indian scholar to recognise the vital importance of common property resources...

-Down to Earth So far livestock-related schemes were only catering to settled farmers, herders The Union government admitted that India’s pastoralist communities fell through the cracks when it comes to them benefitting from various schemes. It has urged states with sizeable population of such communities to work to prevent this. There is a significant population of pastoralists or cattle herders across India who move from one place to another to graze their animals....

-Down to Earth Supreme Court seeks update on power cables at Great Indian Bustard’s habitat The Supreme Court of India sought an update April 1, 2022 from the committee formed for making power lines underground in Rajasthan and Gujarat ordered a year ago.  The habitat of the state bird of Rajasthan — the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) or Godavan — is under threat due to the zigzag web of high-tension power lines through...

-Down to Earth Wildfires have been reported from the buffer zone of Silent Valley National Park apart from Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Attappadi Reserve Forest and Walayar Reserve Forest Kerala has witnessed raging wildfires in the last four days as an unusually early summer has raised temperatures by two to three degrees Celsius above average. The state’s flora and fauna have suffered as a result of the climate change-induced extreme weather events. Wildfires have...