The Third Pole
Ramya Nair on working with indigenous Yimkhiung Naga, exploring wildlife despite hunting pressure
Ramya Nair is a researcher leading a project in Thanamir village, Nagaland. The indigenous Yimkhiung Naga residents own and manage a roughly 65-square-kilometre community forest.
Cambodians struggle to stay afloat, retain their identity after losing their homes to country's biggest dam
Villagers who had to leave homes flooded in 2017 by the Lower Sesan 2 dam have had their culture and livelihoods eroded.
Amid hunger and poor sanitation, fear of cyclones exacerbate plight of Rohingya refugees on Bangladesh island
The island is between Sandwip and Hatia islands, close to the small town of Bhola – all infamous names in the history of cyclones.
On the India-Bhutan border, an indigenous group faces extinction due to mining pollution
The entire population of one of the world’s smallest indigenous groups, the Toto, live in a village on the India-Bhutan border. They are threatened by mining, water scarcity and a blood disorder.
In Assam's tea plantations, chronic water crisis ails workers unable to afford filters, sanitisers in the pandemic
The recent spread of COVID-19 in Assam’s tea plantations highlights long-running chronic water shortages, with workers lacking access to safe water for drinking or washing.
With Pakistan going big on trout farming, why sustainability should be the need of the hour for farmers practicing it
Trout farms are booming in the country’s mountain provinces, but there is a need for greater awareness of their environmental consequences.
As oil palm proves to be a let down owing to high maintenance cost, South Indian farmers shift to coconut
While the Indian government is pushing for an increase in local palm oil production, domestic consumption of coconut and other traditional oils, such as mustard, is increasing.
With COVID-19 exposing cracks in our healthcare systems, countries must also reorient their climate agenda
As health systems near their limit in places like India and Nepal, a resetting of global priorities towards disaster anticipation rather than merely disaster management is required.
Along Nepal's Kamala river, cultivation has brought both opportunities and problems for farmers
Hundreds of families are adapting to sandbank cultivation on both sides of the Kamala. The practice has appeared along a 35-kilometre stretch of the river.
Two Haridwar monks go on hunger strike to protest against sand mining, dam construction on Ganga
Out of sight of millions of pilgrims, two Hindu monks are on hunger strike in an attempt to protect the holy but increasingly threatened Ganga river.
Revival of long defunct North Koel dam project makes indigenous communities apprehensive
Work on the project started in 1974 but stopped in 1997 after the partially built dam was responsible for flooding the area.
At Sindh's primary healthcare centres, solar power is helping save the lives of mothers
Primary health centres in Sindh face prolonged power outages which can last up to eight hours. Across the country, essential facilities such as hospitals often use diesel-fuelled generators as back-up power supply.
In Himalaya: A Human History, mountaineer Ed Douglas tells a captivating, timely story of the region
Douglas asks a pertinent question: “Why was it that stories about climbing Everest were far more common than stories about the people who lived in its shadow?”
In Bangladesh, a fishing community lives in a boat village, dissociated from mainland, government assistance
The locals consider them to be lower caste people. The land dwellers are the main customers of these fishers, as they do business with the ‘Babaija’. It is a relation of monetary transactions, not one of kinship.
Central to disaster relief efforts in Pakistan's mountain villages, women scale heights with rescue teams
Dedicated teams of women volunteers are an important part of working with communities in effective ways during disaster relief operations.
As Nepal's Budhi Gandaki hydro project is put on hold, flooding threatens lives of thousands
The project was meant to be finished by 2022 but the China Gezhouba Group Corporation shows no sign of starting work.
Discovery of Hangul carcass in Dachigam Sanctuary fuels concerns over suspected poaching of Kashmir's iconic deer
Along with the poaching of Hangul, leopards, bears, musk deer and other mammals, poaching of birds is also worrying wildlife lovers and experts in Kashmir.
In a Nepali wetland, a traditional craft helps a community earn a livelihood and keeps invasive weeds in check
While such initiatives will not permanently eradicate the invasive plants, uprooting large quantities helps to safeguard the ecosystem.
In photos: The story of Nepal's first, and now nearly forgotten, hydropower project
This was only 30 years after the installation of the world’s first hydropower plant on Fox river of Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1882, and a year before China built its first hydropower plant in 1912 in Yunnan province.
Markhor struggles to survive in Kashmir as its Hirapora habitat is overgrazed, fragmented by roads and power lines
Markhor (Capra falconeri) – the largest wild goat in the world – was in the near-threatened category on the IUCN red list when the most recent assessment for the species was made in 2014. The mountain goat’s habitat ranges over the north-western parts of the Hindu Kush Himalayas, in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.