WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
In this paper we reflect on aspects of palaeoecological approaches to understanding past woodland environments. With increasing requirements for interdisciplinarity in research, and an increase in popular interest in the ‘natural environment’ such as ‘new nature writing’, we suggest that palaeoecology is potentially well situated to engage with other audiences …
Human activity has had an "overwhelmingly" destructive effect on the natural environment in the region between Vietnam and the Tibetan plateau since the late Han Dynasty nearly two thousand years ago, according to a new study by Chinese scientists. Analysing sedimentary records from the Red River, which originates on the …
THE beauty of Chitral particularly of historical Kalash Valleys, also known for greenery, is at the verge of ruining as deforestation and massive illegal cutting of the trees with fast going on. There are three known valleys of Kalash people including Bamboret, Rambor and Bareer. These were also known for …
The human-environment interaction goes back to the remotest possible times in the history of humanity. Sometimes, it is seen as a manifestation of a struggle between the two. There have also been times when this relationship took the form of respectable coexistence. While the history of humanity of the last …
Ecological history plays many roles in ecological restoration, most notably as a tool to identify and characterize appropriate targets for restoration efforts. However, ecological history also reveals deep human imprints on many ecological systems and indicates that secular climate change has kept many targets moving at centennial to millennial time …
Even before the caves in Meghalaya can reveal clues to climate change, rampant mining is destroying their wealth. AMARJYOTI BORAH goes deep into the issue Meghalaya carries a bewitching world in its belly. The natural caves found in Jaintia Hills are a storehouse of geological treasures. Rivers and streams flow …
Vowing to intensify their agitation against bauxite mining the Opposition TD launch-ed padayatra in this Agen-cy mandal here on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, the TD district unit president, Mr Bandaru Satyanrayana Murthy, alleged that the Congress government was diluting the rights of the tribals under the 1/70 Act. "The …
Doomsday scenarios typically feature a knockout blow: a massive asteroid, all-out nuclear war or a catastrophic pandemic. Yet there is another chilling possibility: what if the very nature of civilisation means that ours, like all the others, is destined to collapse sooner or later?
The book is an account of the author's pioneering work in the conservation of India's architectural and environmental heritage. MEMOIRS usually make interesting reading and when they are the memoirs of a vocal and dynamic campaigner there is the added anticipation of reading about what really happened behind the scenes. …
This is a unique year for India's environmental movement. It marks the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy. It is also the 30th anniversary of the Chipko movement: women of the Himalaya hugged trees to protect them from the axe of wood loggers. These events have changed the course …
Forest histories have more often than not remained aloof from more broad-based economic histories of agrarian communities. As a result, narratives of the forest economy have focused almost entirely on the process offorest settlement. This article focuses on regional processes of territorialisation associated with revenue and forest settlement in the …
THE book tackles the stereotypical image long ascribed to American Indians. Anthropologist Shepard Krech III takes on the unenviable task of breaking through the myths cherished by the contemporary world. Prevailing myths portray the American Indians as extremely intelligent in dealing with nature and living in perfect harmony with their …
all thought and human action, be it in the field of science or arts, is based on certain tenets. These principles have their origins in philosophical discourses propounded through the ages. All such philosophies have one thing in common - they have overplayed the importance of humankind and have always …
On the role of environmental historians: Our understanding of the past has been radically changed over the last 20 years by environmental historians, who have been part of a more general movement promoting an ecocentric worldview. Most environmental his-torians are products of the '60s generation. I certainly am one among …
The governance systems of India - bequeathed to us by the erstwhile colonial masters which we embraced with great eagerness - are today in a state of deep crisis. The British built bureaucracies to control and manage India's natural resources and to deliver a variety of services like education and …
POLITICAL history cannot be separated from cultural history, and cultural history is not a catalogue of events or a roster of events or a roster of personages, but an unfolding process of interaction between humans and nature. German scholar Leopald von Ranke, the father of modern positivist history, defined its …
Ancient Hindus considered the construction of wells a sacred duty. Inscriptions on ancient wells in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, exhort the people drawing water from them to pour an equal amount of water in a nearby pool. Texts like the Vishnu Purana clearly state that one who cares for water sources …
