Blogs

By Aakanksha Tiwari, Researcher-Environment and Climate Action Ancient India had few environmental regulations that can be read in Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’ and on the fifth pillar edict of Emperor Ashoka. In the era before Indian independence in 1947, though there were no laws, there were cultural

By Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Change As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages populations worldwide with no end in sight, economies are now trying to limp back to normal. With the revival in economic activity, the gains in air quality that cities have seen will evaporate in the thick

-By Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Change On June 18, the Prime Minister launched the auction of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining with no end-use or pricing restriction, giving a free hand to private players from India and abroad to come and plunder natural resources for the

-By Aakanksha Tiwari, Niraj Bhatt and Vamsi Sankar Kapilavai, Environment and Climate Action Background While India is busy tackling Covid-19 and enjoying the news of ‘healing nature’, people have received shocking news of incidents in three of its states, one after the other, within a span of 24

It is not the most enviable of tasks - to announce to anyone that the future is not what it used to be. More so if the audiences for our apocalyptic messages are gleamy-eyed youngsters, with supposedly a heady mix of hope, irreverence and apathy (they can ill-afford, if you ask us). And what reason

by Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Change For coal-fired thermal power plants, water is one of the key requirements for power generation. Water is required for generating steam in the boiler, for cooling process in the condenser, disposal of ash, heat removal in auxiliary units and

As I woke up this morning, the smell of air reminded me of a morning in Delhi. What was it in Chennai’s air that made my sleepy mind think of Delhi as I woke up? The smell was familiar, and I remembered having experienced it at the same time last year in Chennai. I peeped out of my bedroom window

by Bhagyashree Rath, Researcher - Environment and Climate Change Determining the performance of a power plant can be a complex topic to understand, given the various factors such as availability of fuel/water, installed capacity, the age of the unit, planned outage etc, at play. A brief

-By Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Action In part I of the three-part series on geoengineering, we learnt about marine geoengineering and why it is not a quick fix for the climate crisis. In part II of this series, we look at land-based geoengineering and why it is a bad bet to

-By Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Action Part I of this series was about marine geoengineering and why it is not a quick fix for the climate crisis, while part II was about land-based geoengineering and why it is a bad bet to combat climate crisis. In part III of the three-part

by Niraj Bhatt, Researcher - Environment and Climate Change In our last issue, we explored the detrimental effect of coal-fired power plants on the local aquatic and marine ecosystems. We also delved into how the discharges from coal-fired power plants affect fish health and human livelihoods and

The world celebrated June 05, 2019 as the World Environment Day (WED 2019), and the theme this year was “Air Pollution”. China, once famous for its smoggy skies and extremely polluted air was the global host, while back home in India, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEFCC), in