The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
This report presents several case studies from selected natural and cultural World Heritage sites around the globe in order to illustrate the impacts of climate change that have already been observed and those that can be expected in the future. For each of the featured sites, ongoing and planned adaptation …
The Kabartal wetland situated in the upper Indo-Gangetic flood plains in northern India is significant because of its hydrological and ecological services, and the socio-economic and cultural values that it represents. Despite being designated as a wildlife sanctuary, this wetland is under threat from anthropogenic pressures. As in the case …
We used a semistructured social survey of 590 households in 37 villages along the southern boundary of Kaziranga National Park and World Heritage Site, Assam, India in late 2000 and early 2001 to assess resource use and demographic and socioeconomic conditions. Kaziranga, recently expanded in size in a region with …
Home-garden-system is an ecosystem of different kind and a common feature of most suburban landscape in many rice farming tropical countries. If these kinds of ecosystems are well maintained, well-developed and used most sustainably; they can contribute a lot to the conservation of biological diversity by lessening the destructive use …
The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot, with its unique assemblages of plant and animal communities and endemic species, is globally important for conserving representative areas of the Earth
Action to conserve biodiversity, particularly through the creation of protected areas (PAs), is inherently political. Political ecology is a field of study that embraces the interactions between the way nature is understood and the politics and impacts of environmental action. This paper explores the political ecology of conservation, particularly the …
Decisions that affect how people use land are among the most fraught that any enlightened society has to grapple with. Two claims that typically come out on the short end of the land-use debate are the claims of indigenous people and claims for non-human species. Sometimes claims for indigenous people …
This monsoon, the Raikas, traditional camel breeders in the Kumbalgarh Wild Life Sanctuary in Rajasthan's Pali district, will face an existential crisis again. It will be the third successive season that the pastoral community will have been banned from grazing their camels in Kumbalgarh. Living in the Bali and Desuri …
Ahad Miah has come a long way from his tree felling days. He is now one of the custodians of the Lauachhara protected forest, working shoulder to shoulder with government appointed forest guards. "Now we can sleep in peace. The police and forest gaurds are not after us,' says the …
Yala, January 25, 2007: Sri Lanka's only known crossed-tusk elephant in the wild, known locally as Dalaputtuwa dies of paralysis caused by gunshot wounds in the periphery of a highly protected national park. The tusker, a rare sight in Sri Lankan jungles, was shot by 35-year old Punchi Banda Samarathunge …
Precedent for activities allowed inside protected areas >> Supreme Court (SC) permitted Power Grid Corporation of India to lay a transmission line in Rajaji National Park, Uttaranchal. The order passed on October 29, 2002, allowed felling of 14,739 trees as against 66,427 trees approved by the Union ministry of environment …
Praveen Bhargav The Western Ghats is recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot. In the past, many large development projects including highways, railway lines, mega dams, nuclear plants and mines have intruded into this biodiversity treasure trove. Lack of knowledge and absence of effective watchdogs contributed to the ad-hoc manner in …
Documentary: Haritham Director: Rajendra Prasad Producer: Jaycee Foundation and Gothrabhumi films Mangala Vanam is a bird sanctuary in the heart of Cochin. Ostensibly so. But migratory birds have stopped visiting this mangrove since the last few seasons. Declared a protected area in 1972, this green lung in Kerala's coastal city …
Botswana's autochthonous Bushmen (or the San people) have won legal rights to return to their ancestral homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, after the High Court of Botswana ruled against their eviction by the government. Following the eviction, the Bushmen had been living in resettlement camps just outside the …
Kenya's Ogiek tribal people, one of the last hunter-gatherer communities in east Africa, have joined Botswana's San people (or Bushmen) in their fight against the government to allow them return to their ancestral land. Originally, the San people lived in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (ckgr). In 1997, they were …
Tracking the snow leopard: The life and habits of the elusive snow leopard will no longer be a mystery. For the first time, a team has fitted a snow leopard with a global positioning system (GPS) collar to track its movements. The 35 kg female was captured on the Purdum …
The issue of displacement and rehabilitation of people from wildlife areas is a recurrent and central theme in the context of crises in nature conservation in India. India is one of the countries where the issue of relocation has lately acquired centre-stage in debates on biodiversity conservation.
in march 2006, Himachal Pradesh gave the go-ahead to proposals denotifying four sanctuaries and redrawing boundaries of 15 areas, including protected areas. Not surprisingly, the areas are required for either mining or hydro-electric projects or roads. Ridden by controversy The Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary in Shimla district is still caught up …
