By every rule in the book, this ship, carrying asbestos waste and radioactive elements, should not be in Indian waters, let alone be beached. And yet, despite well-premised objections, the central government persuaded the Supreme Court to rule that Blue Lady be dismantled at Alang. Gopal Krishna was a petitioner in the litigation.

Bureaucratic control of river flow by a single agency is responsible for recurring disasters. The management of ageing dams is driven by fear as much as anything else, and this in turn causes other risks. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The formal count of the number of tigers in India's 28 tiger reserves is expected to be announced on 31 December 2007. The report could help formulate policies of land use as well as accentuate the debate on rehabilitation of forest dwellers in favour of wildlife conservation, writes Malini Shankar.

Over 170 organisations and individuals came together to highlight Vedanta's history of environmental irregularities to the Golden Peacock jury members, prompting a second look. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Kerala's biodiversity board has asked Chief Minister V S Achutanandan to reject single window clearance for the 'High Tech City' project at the exhilarating Valanthakad island in the backwaters outside Kochi. P N Venugopal reports.

Are glaciers in the Himalayas retreating? India depends greatly on these water sources, and we should therefore be more cautious in assessing this risk, writes Darryl D'Monte.

The spirit of a public hearing must be respected, says a recent verdict from the Delhi High Court, refusing to accept the literal interpretations of the rules which the environment appellate authority used. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The environment clerance process continues to make a mockery of the law. As the Athena case shows, when a project is pulled up, the Ministry simply finds another channel by which to continue it. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The National Environment Appellate Authority finds everything that ECPEL did in the Naupada swamp is ecologically harmful, but the project must go ahead anyway. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Mumbai is closer to finalising its 20-year development plan, from 2014 to 2034. The plan might be hiding more than it reveals, writes Darryl D'Monte.

Hasmukh Dhumadia narrates his experience of helping the local residents of a village in Gujarat in their fight for environmental justice.

July 26, 2017 marked the 12th anniversary of Mumbai’s mega flood in 2005. Darryl D’Monte looks into the causes and effects of the deluge.

Darryl D’Monte reviews Indira Gandhi – A Life in Nature , a new book focussing on Indira Gandhi as a naturalist.

In this edition we look at a powerful documentary on the Muzaffarnagar communal riots that shook the nation in September 2013, the plight of Pakistani Hindus refugees in Delhi, the intent behind settling the forest rights claims of tribals, the crime, atrocities and discrimination against Dalits which is on  rise, the sad state of our nation's health care system, the message of Pope Francis’s latest Encyclical, and much more.

In this edition we remember the hunger strike launched by Irom Sharmila fifteen years ago and which is still going strong. We also have a national award winner explaining why she will not give back her awards like the other awardees, and much more.

We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year 2016. We hope you will continue to support our in-depth, non-partisan journalism by donating generously to India Together at https://www.payumoney.com/paybypayumoney/#/B592DB569E40F8E281ACF34D39FFFA06.
 
We end an eventful 2015 by looking into the controversial Maheshwar Hydropower Project, what is happening to several forest cases, how some sex workers are empowering themselves by gaining legal knowledge, an interesting learning institute called Adivasi Academy, and much more.

In this edition, we look into the odd-even traffic experiment going on in Delhi to combat its air pollution, how poor people lost eye sight in botched up cataract surgeries performed in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, the skill deficit in the emerging work force of our country, an interview with the well-known Tamil feminist writer C S Lakshmi, and more.

In this edition, we celebrate the International Women's Day by bringing out inspiring stories of Soni Sori and the girl footballers from Chennai. We also look into why India's solar mission is in dispute with WTO, the Good Samaritan guidelines that are made compulsory now, and more.

A new mechanical device that makes areca nut harvesting less labour-intensive and hence affordable could solve one of the major problems faced by farmers of the crop. Shrikrishna D reports.

Rapid industrial growth brought wealth but also unchecked pollution to the town of Vapi. It impacted the local fishing communities by destroying their livelihoods. Manisha Goswami and Bharat Patel report on the decades of damage caused by the chemical industries in the area.

Convicted of murder without a lawyer to represent him during the trial, a man was finally set free by the Bombay High Court after a human rights lawyer obtained the landmark order that upholds the constitutional right for legal aid in case of indigent and poor undertrials.

The recent verdict of the Andhra High Court acquitting all the accused in the horrific killing of eight Dalits in 1991 may be based on legal technicalities, but is an instance of justice denied, argues Venugopalrao Nellutla.

The current shape of government is too distributed to tackle the scale and complexity of the rural employment guarantee. A National-level autonomous body should be created solely for implementing the NREGA, and this agency should have the necessary authority, in addition to the responsibility, to manage the implementation, says Trilochan Sastry.

When women, of whatever class, are forced by circumstance to migrate, they expose themselves to new forms of violence and exploitation. A new UN report terms trafficking of women as migration 'gone bad' and the 'underside' of globalisation, notes Kalpana Sharma.

Meghalaya's vocational training system, despite being funded by New Delhi as well as the state government, has two problems. One, there is dearth of adequate number of Industrial Training Institutes (ITI). Two, the placement record is poor and does not generate demand. Ratna Bharali Talukdar finds out what went wrong.

Harishchandrachi Factory is a wonderful account that traces the man who made history as much as the first film he made, marking a milestone forever. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

Darryl D'Monte talks about his recent participation in a discussion on Nayantara Sahgal's book on Nehru, which delves into Nehruvian policies, his cherished dreams, his lasting legacy and its importance in today's time.

The same combination of corporate interest and agricultural science that led to mindless use of pesticide is now turning to genetic engineerng, says Devinder Sharma.

15-year-old Raje was left home alone in Chennai on 17 January while her family attended the Sunday church. When they returned, it was to find she had hung herself from the living room fan. Krithika Ramalingam reports on Tamilnadu's growing suicide numbers in the 10-19 age group.

A multi-state campaign to draw attention to the adverse effect of agriculture and trade policies on sugarcane farmers has just ended. Padmalatha Ravi spoke with farmers and campaign coordinators in Tamilnadu, and traces the growth and decline of agricultural families' fortunes around this crop.

Government schools are unable to deliver quality education in most cases. This has prompted some to argue for vouchers - coupons from the government to be given to parents that would let them admit their children in private schools instead. Krithika Ramalingam reports on a movement that is gathering steam.

Papri Sri Raman

Stone quarries, brick kilns, sand mining and silk weaving are stealing SC/ST children out of school in Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts of Tamilnadu. Krithika Ramalingam reports on the hard reality these children face.

Recent student protests in Tamilnadu may have had the Sri Lankan issue and the Indian governmental stance on it as the immediate trigger, but in reality, the dynamics go much deeper and need to be viewed in a broader context. Gnana Bharathy analyses.

We can fight the scrouge of corruption not by legislation nor by moral pressures but by an awakened community which refuses to settle for anything less that what is its legitimate due, writes R Balasubramaniam.

Amongst the various models for sustainable livelihoods being tried and tested in the tribal areas of India, the Wadi model has shown a lot of promise. Abhijeet Mohanty, Kieran Robson and Rosie Clarkson find out why and how the Wadi model is doing in the tribal areas of Koraput district of Odisha.

The proposed National ID should be a backbone upon which governance and economic development rest comfortably, rather than merely a tool for auditing schemes, writes Ashwin Mahesh.

6 years ago, Punukula village in AP was no different from many other cotton farming regions. Pesticide overuse and environmental poisoning were rampant, and so were pests. But by 2004, the village had successfully charted a simple escape route. Devinder Sharma looks at the lessons.

The Green Revolution was a publicly owned technology, but the current version is its opposite; processes, products, and research methodologies are caged in patents and the farmer has little say or control. But chasing nuclear stardom, India has once again sacrificed agriculture, writes Suman Sahai.

Following Gene Campaign's challenge to the government's decision to withdraw all existing regulatory oversight over the import of GE foods, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, writes Suman Sahai.

S G Vombatkere writes his concluding opinion on the series on the proposed gigantic network of interlinked rivers.

Punjab needs water, and that means some of the water-guzzling crops must go. But questions of food security and corporatized agriculture confront the state's proposed shift, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Lalitha Sridhar presents two largely divergent points of view.

Once among the most productive agrarian economies in the country, this region of Thanjavur district is now reeling. Lalitha Sridhar reports on the situation and implications.

Six leading advocates of decentralisation and people centred planning met the President of India on 20 April to impress upon him that the Interlinking of Rivers project as currently being envisaged is the wrong direction for the country to take. They have since written a letter to Dr.Kalam addressing his questions.

This B-school's 96-acre campus occupies two steep hillocks. There is no independent water source for the entire institute and the average daily water consumption exceeds one lakh litres. The absence of pre-monsoon showers in mid-Kerala is causing worry elsewhere, but IIM-Kozhikode shows no signs of anxiety. Shree Padre finds out why.

A Kerala panchayat has recently appealed the state High Court's ruling which said that the panchayat's rejection of Coca Cola's application for renewal of license to extract groundwater was untenable in law. Videh Upadhyay drafts some of questions that the Supreme Court may need to settle.

Shortage of water has been a tale of woe in Rajasthan for decades. But this year, the state's largest circulated Hindi daily, Rajasthan Patrika, has motivated around 155,000 volunteers to clean up 388 discarded traditional ponds and wells. Ramesh Menon reports from Jaipur.

Tending livestock is difficult enough for settled communities, but for migrants the hardships are even worse. Without formal laws providing them access to water or feed, they must continually negotiate these, or bribe forest officials to obtain passage rights. Surekha Sule reports on recent studies highlighting their woes.

The practical management of water systems has become detached from the knowledge gained through research, which has made great progress in the last two or three decades. Because critical elements of research have been externalised, the induction of new inter-disciplinary learning has been greatly limited, writes Jayanta Bandyopadhyay.