Asia’s Water Politics Near the Boiling Point

NEW DELHI, Mar 21 2017 (IPS) – In Asia, it likely will not be straightforward water wars. Prolonged water scarcity might lead to security situations that are more nuanced, giving rise to a complex...

Kerala fishermen tackle pollution, clam theft to protect wetland

A conservation system devised by local fisherfolk is helping keep Vembanad Lake clean and safeguarding their livelihood ALAPPUZHA, India, Feb 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Flocks of storks and cormorants perched on bamboo stilts...

Mini-grids: Energy Access Builds Inclusive Economies and Resilient Communities

NEW DELHI, Feb 16 2017 (IPS) – Jaipal Hembrum runs three one-man home enterprises – a bicycle repair shop, a tiny food stall and a tailoring unit in Kautuka, a remote village in eastern...

Tiger trumps man in Indian tribal villages

Families complain they are being stripped of their ancestral lands to protect the shrinking tiger stock, decimating traditional ways of life. BHUBANESWAR, India, Feb 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The tigers that roam the...

South Asia’s women suffer as climate migration rises

75-year-old Afsa Begum’s husband is dead and her son left for Mangalore to work for a construction contractor after the severe monsoon floods in 2016. He has sent money only once (Pic: Manipadma Jena)....

For South Asian Policy-Makers, Climate Migrants Still Invisible

Flash floods carried away everything except the clothes on their backs. Villagers take emergency food in plastic bags in a coastal village in India’s eastern state Odisha. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS NEW DELHI, Dec 13...

‘This forest is like an old friend’ – India’s tribal women fight for land ownership

A group of women’s efforts to save a forest has been so successful it’s becoming the template for forests across the state RANAPUR, India, Oct 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – For the tribal women...

Q&A: Land Degradation Could Force 135 Million to Migrate in Next 30 Years

NEW DELHI/BONN, Oct 18 2016 (IPS) – One of the critical challenges facing the world today is that emerging migration patterns are increasingly rooted in the depletion of natural resources. Entire populations are being...

India’s most flood-prone state Bihar aided by new satellite mapping

BHUBANESWAR, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Every year Bihar is deluged by floods that submerge roads, destroy homes and wash away crops, leaving the disaster management authority struggling to monitor and assess the damage,...

Microsensor-Fitted Locust Swarms? Sci-fi Meets Conservation

NEW DELHI, Sep 19 2016 (IPS) – Every November, India’s Gahirmatha beach in the Indian Ocean region develops a brownish-grey rash for 60 to 80 days. Half-a-million female Olive Ridley turtles emerge out of...