How fertilisers are killing Indian agriculture
The huge government subsidy of Rs 12,000 crore is not only a financial millstone around our neck. By encouraging unrestrained use of fertilisers it is destroying our soils and agriculture
Impossible deadline for the Forest Rights Act
The December 31 deadline of the tribal affairs ministry for full implementation of the Forest Rights Act is absurd. How can implementation of such a complex Act be rushed through when issues involving processing of claims, recent encroachments, and the Act’s relationship with existing forest and wildlife laws have not yet been thought through?
Should India cut emissions?
India’s stand on climate change is that our right to ‘development’ is non-negotiable. But, considering that the path to development we have adopted is neither sustainable nor equitable, it is time we took on voluntary emission cuts for our own welfare, even as we continue pressurising the West to cut its emissions substantially, says Ashish Kothari
What's wildlife worth? Ten rupees!
Is there any significance in the fact that India’s 1,000-rupee note depicts technological progress and industry, while wildlife and natural resources make it only to our 10-rupee note? After all, says Ashish Kothari, even as our decision-makers pay lip service to nature these seven days of Wildlife Week, they continue to sign away the very habitats that wild plants and animals thrive in
An agenda for the environment minister
India’s new minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh cannot change his government’s focus on unsustainable growth, but he can open the environment ministry to civil society engagement and change its status as a willing rubber stamp for industry, says Ashish Kothari
Acts of healing
In the heart of Washington DC is an official museum that is brutally honest about the genocide that the white man wrought on the native Americans five centuries ago. When will India begin to provide a more balanced view of the history, culture and current status of its indigenous people?
The other America?
Barack Obama's election victory could well be a defining moment for the earth, says Ashish Kothari. For if he works to rescue what he calls "a planet in peril", we could see America responding to the biodiversity crisis, adopting clean technologies and embracing ecological economic models that put the environment and ordinary people -- rather than profits -- at the centre of planning
Indian industry's wake-up call on environmental sustainability
Environmentalists have always warned that India is living well beyond its means. Now Indian industry has released a report saying that India consumes twice as much natural resources as it possesses. Ashish Kothari analyses India’s Ecological Footprint: A Business Perspective, produced by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Global Footprint Network
Tata, bye-bye, and good riddance?
As the Tatas battle on in Singur in the wake of protests against their Nano car plant, industrial houses should take comfort in the fact that the Indian government is solidly behind them. It’s just those ignorant farmers, fisherfolk and tribals who don’t know what’s good for them who’re standing in the way of a shiny new India, says Ashish Kothari
'Can you do family planning of nilgai, sir?'
All of us hate the idea of hunting or killing wildlife, writes Ashish Kothari. But with villagers across India facing increasing attacks by wild animals, conservationists must realise that in the interests of both wildlife conservation and people's livelihood security we must look beyond the narrow ethics of individual animal protection to a broader one of survival of species and ecosystems
