-The Telegraph The scientist, Madhav Gadgil, turns 80 this month I come from a family of scientists, but I shied away from studying science myself. Yet, in a happy irony, it turned out that the most important intellectual collaboration of my life was with a scientist, Madhav Gadgil, whose eightieth birthday falls later this month. Born in Pune, Gadgil studied in Bombay, and at Harvard, where he took a PhD in ecology and...

-Business Standard These disasters were caused due to higher economic activities like rock quarrying, construction of new buildings and roads and destruction of natural forest, says Madhav Gadgil At least 20 people have lost their lives and several others are missing as heavy rains led to flash floods and landslides in several parts of Kerala. The situation, which may turn out to be a repeat of the 2018 floods if rain continues, has...

-The Hindu The Western Ghats panel’s suggestions stressed the need to strengthen grass-roots governance In 2018, many people thought that the floods and landslides in Kerala that caused huge financial losses and manifold human tragedies marked a once-in-a-century calamity, and that normalcy will return soon and we can merrily return to business as usual. Further, the probability of two such back-to-back events was only 1 in 10,000. Hence, in 2019, a repeat...

-Hindustan Times The nature-development equilibrium is broken, leading to climate disasters. At least 100 people have died in floods in three states in peninsular India — Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra — in August due to monsoon floods. There are several reasons, as reported in a series of articles in Hindustan Times, for the havoc and deaths, such as changes in land-use patterns, excessive quarrying and unscientific plantations (Kerala), poor management of dams...

-The Hindu Kerala needs to adopt watershed-based master planning and review building byelaws The unique geography of Kerala, with its steep climbdown from 900m high elevations of the Western Ghats to the coast of Malabar, has resulted in a land with a vast riverine network. There are no less than 44 fast flowing rivers that drain the rainwater Kerala is blessed with into the Arabian Sea. It is a lifeline that supports...