Month: January 2026

    Winter fog over the Indo-Gangetic Plain has long disrupted daily life in North India, grounding flights, delaying trains, slowing road traffic and causing major economic losses every year. While fog itself is a familiar winter feature, scientists have struggled to explain why some fog episodes become unusually dense and linger for days. A new study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras provides a clear explanation. The research shows that rising air pollution is directly responsible for making winter fog thicker, deeper and more persistent across northern India. The findings are based on 15 years of satellite observations combined with advanced computer simulations. The study, published in the journal Science Advances uses data from NASA’s ...

    On a cold December morning in 1995, second-year students from one of Delhi University premier women’s colleges set out on a long-awaited picnic. Wrapped in coats and jackets, they boarded a bus headed to Damdama Lake, near a small village of the same name on the outskirts of Gurugram, then still known as Gurgaon. Nestled in the folds of the ancient Aravalli hills, the lake was a cherished escape for Delhiites, a place where water, forests and sky came together in quiet harmony. The journey took nearly three hours, in a time before expressways compressed distances and Gurugram transformed into an urban sprawl. The bus windows refused to shut, letting in icy winds that numbed hands and faces. The first hour passed in silence. Gradually, as the sun climbed and warmth se...

    On a cold December morning in 1995, second-year students from one of Delhi University premier women’s colleges set out on a long-awaited picnic. Wrapped in coats and jackets, they boarded a bus headed to Damdama Lake, near a small village of the same name on the outskirts of Gurugram, then still known as Gurgaon. Nestled in the folds of the ancient Aravalli hills, the lake was a cherished escape for Delhiites, a place where water, forests and sky came together in quiet harmony. The journey took nearly three hours, in a time before expressways compressed distances and Gurugram transformed into an urban sprawl. The bus windows refused to shut, letting in icy winds that numbed hands and faces. The first hour passed in silence. Gradually, as the sun climbed and warmth se...

    Groundwater has long acted as an invisible employer in rural India, silently supporting millions of days of casual agricultural work. But as water tables fall across large parts of the country, this hidden source of employment is disappearing, triggering a growing labour crisis alongside an ecological one. New field evidence and academic research show that declining access to groundwater is directly linked to sharp drops in casual farm employment, hitting the most vulnerable rural workers the hardest. For decades, groundwater has been treated as a private resource, pumped freely to irrigate fields and sustain multiple cropping cycles. This steady water supply expanded agricultural activity and extended farming seasons, creating regular demand for casual labour during...

    The recent water contamination incident in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has once again drawn national attention to India’s growing groundwater crisis. In the Bhagirathpura locality, contaminated drinking water allegedly caused by sewage leakage led to a serious outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea. More than a dozen people lost their lives and several others were hospitalised, turning the situation into a public health emergency. This was not an isolated incident. In 2025 alone, Indore recorded 266 complaints related to water quality. Earlier reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in 2019 and 2022 had already flagged major weaknesses in urban water management systems in Indore and Bhopal. These events underline a larger and more worrying reality: groundwate...

    As groundwater levels continue to fall across large parts of India, a grassroots organisation is quietly reversing drought conditions in some of the country’s most water-deficient regions. Aakar Charitable Trust, founded in 2003 by social reformer Amla Ruia, has helped restore water security in rural India by constructing rainwater harvesting structures that recharge groundwater and revive local economies. Over the past 23 years, the Trust has built more than 1,380 water bodies across 11 states, including 825 check dams and 555 ponds. These structures now benefit 1,284 villages and have positively impacted nearly 1.8 million people. According to the organisation, its projects convert rainwater into long-term groundwater reserves, collecting nearly 38 billion litres o...

    Deforestation in Colombia appears to be falling again in 2025, marking a potential continuation of the country’s recent progress in slowing forest loss. New government data indicate that forest clearing declined significantly during the first three quarters of the year, with notable reductions in departments that have long been deforestation hotspots, including Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare. According to figures released by IDEAM, an estimated 36,280 hectares of forest were lost between January and September 2025. This represents a 25 per cent decrease compared to the same period in 2024, when deforestation reached approximately 48,500 hectares. Data for the final quarter of the year is still being processed, but officials say the trend so far is encouraging. Colombi...

    For decades, scientists have expected that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would make forests grow faster. After all, trees absorb carbon dioxide, combine it with water using sunlight, produce sugars for growth, and release oxygen. More carbon in the air should mean more growth, more carbon storage, and a natural brake on climate change. But long-term measurements from real forests have stubbornly refused to follow that logic. A new study led by researchers from Duke University and Wuhan University offers a compelling explanation for this puzzle. The research shows that carbon dioxide alone does not control how fast trees grow. Water, and how trees manage it, plays an equally critical role. Over the past several decades, atmospheric carbon dioxid...

    A team of international scientists has found a practical and affordable way to reduce locust damage to crops, offering fresh hope to farmers who have long struggled against these destructive pests. The breakthrough study, led by researchers associated with Arizona State University, shows that improving soil nutrition can dramatically cut locust numbers, reduce crop damage and even double yields under real-world farming conditions. Locust swarms, often compared to biblical plagues, continue to devastate crops across large regions, wiping out livelihoods and worsening food insecurity. Swarms can stretch across hundreds of square kilometres, consuming nearly every green plant in their path. While chemical pesticides have traditionally been used to control outbreaks, the...

    The true cost of climate change is far higher than previously estimated, with new research showing that damage to oceans almost doubles the global economic burden of greenhouse gas emissions. A landmark study by scientists at the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography has, for the first time, included ocean-related losses in calculating the social cost of carbon, fundamentally reshaping how climate damage is valued worldwide. The study estimates that ocean degradation caused by climate change, including coral reef loss, disruption of fisheries and damage to coastal infrastructure, results in nearly two trillion dollars in losses every year. Until now, most economic models assessing climate impacts had effectively assigned zero value to...