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DARJEELING, WEST BENGAL – October 5, 2025 – Continuous and extremely heavy rains triggered massive landslides across the Darjeeling and Mirik hills in West Bengal on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, including children, and injuring several others. The disaster has swept away homes, isolated numerous villages, and left thousands of tourists stranded as road links across the region were severely severed. Fatalities were reported from multiple locations, including Sarsaly, Jasbirgaon, Mirik Basti, Dhar Gaon (Mechi), Nagrakata, and the Mirik Lake area. The worst affected area appears to be Mirik, where the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reported at least 11 deaths and seven rescued individuals. In Darjeeling subdivision, seven deaths were confirmed, with rescue operations underw...

October 5, 2025 – A quiet revolution is transforming land once believed to be beyond saving in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha district. Areas around the Koradi, Khaparkheda, and Chandrapur Thermal Power Stations, which for years resembled a "lunar surface" covered in choking grey fly ash, are now lush green forests, thanks to an innovative ecological restoration method led by Dr. Lal Singh, Principal Scientist and Project Leader at the CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). Using a specialized Eco-Rejuvenation Technology (ERT), Dr. Singh team has proved that land polluted by the fine, powdery coal combustion residue fly ash can be brought back to life, creating clean air, restoring soil quality, and generating essential livelihoods for local villagers. Healing th...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – October 5, 2025 – The Women Climate Leaders Network WCLNconvened its mid-year meeting in Brussels, gathering female business leaders from all 27 EU Member States alongside policymakers, experts, and financial institutions to urge a rapid acceleration of Europe green transition. The consensus of the meeting was clear: “The green transition is the only way Europe cannot compete on fossil fuels.” The strategic dialogue focused on unlocking green finance, advancing the decarbonisation agenda, and positioning women at the forefront of sustainable transformation. WCLN members stressed that climate ambition is not merely an environmental necessity but a crucial economic opportunity and competitive advantage for Europe. Private Sector Confidence and Policy Needs Discu...

PARIS, FRANCE – October 5, 2025 – Pioneering research by a Franco-Italian team has revealed widespread contamination of clouds over France with pesticides including several chemicals banned in Europe for more than a decade. The study, which for the first time estimated the total quantity of pesticides aloft, suggests that between 6 to 139 tonnes of pesticides are present in low and medium clouds over mainland France. The team led by chemist Angelica Bianco analysed six cloud water samples collected between 2023 and 2024 at the summit of the Puy de Dôme massif in Auvergne. They detected 32 different pesticides, and shockingly, a third of the samples contained a total pesticide concentration above the regulatory limits for drinking water. Unprecedented Findings in an Unexplored Matrix ...

NEW DELHI, INDIA – October 4, 2025 – The Capital is bracing for light rainfall on Sunday (October 5) followed by two days of heavier precipitation as a strong Western Disturbance (WD) begins to impact most of northwestern India. The weather system is expected to bring rain, strong winds, and hailstorms across the region until October 7. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast indicates that while Delhi-NCR may see light to moderate rain through October 7, the spells will be accompanied by gusty winds reaching up to 50 km/hr. The minimum temperature in Delhi is expected to dip to 22{C} by October 8, with the maximum dropping to 31{C} with the rain. A sharper fall in temperatures is expected after the disturbance departs, marking the start of a gradual winter onset. WD Bring...

Delhi towering Bhalswa landfill a long-standing symbol of the city environmental crisis is now fueling a breakthrough in sustainable construction. Engineer Vipul Singh and architect Gunraagh Talwar have successfully upcycled 100 tonnes of the landfill’s accumulated "legacy waste" into approximately 50,000 durable, eco-friendly bricks, proving that even mountains of garbage can be transformed into building blocks. Vipul Singh, who founded the 'Tapas Foundation' for environmental action launched the ‘Upcycling the Legacy Waste project in 2023 after being shocked by the sight of Bhalswa’s massive refuse mound, which contaminates local water and air. He collaborated with architect Gunraagh Talwar, who had been experimenting with turning construction and demolition (C&D) waste into build...

GLOBAL – October 2, 2025 – New research published in the journal Science warns that global pledges to plant billions of trees as a cornerstone of carbon reduction may be based on wildly optimistic land and sequestration estimates. The study found that the amount of land previously deemed suitable for forestation an area about the size of India shrank by as much as two-thirds when vital environmental and social constraints were factored in. The research co-authored by Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, determined that once adverse impacts on biodiversity, food security, and water resources are accounted for the potential for existing tree-planting pledges to store an estimated 40 gigatons of carbon by 2050 drops significantly to just 12.5 gigatons. ...

NEW DELHI — The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved a landmark ₹6,957 crore project to widen and upgrade the Kalibor–Numaligarh section of National Highway (NH)-715 in Assam. The project includes a historic 34.5 km elevated corridor across the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) establishing a new benchmark for conservation-friendly infrastructure in India. The approval is hailed as a historic step in infrastructure planning, designed to ensure the uninterrupted and safe movement of the park iconic wildlife, including elephants, rhinos, and tigers, especially during annual floods and migration periods. Project Balances Development and Conservation The 85.675 km stretch of NH-715 (formerly NH-37) currently skirts the sou...

A critical gap in protected area management is allowing illegal fishing to threaten a unique marine ecosystem off the coast of northern Peru, according to an investigation into the Illescas National Reserve. The reserve, while protecting vital terrestrial and coastal areas including the only known coastal nest of the endangered Andean condor is designated exclusively as a terrestrial protected area. This limitation restricts park rangers' ability to intervene against illegal fishing activities that take place just outside their jurisdiction in the adjacent sea. The Chinchorro Challenge The primary threat comes from fishers using chinchorro nets, a "very low selectivity" fishing method that has been banned across the Peruvian coast since 2009. Park rangers frequently confront fi...

A group of botanists from Benin Côte d'Ivoire, and Switzerland have launched the African Network of Palm Scientists to combat the decline of native palm species across the continent due to deforestation, overexploitation, and habitat loss. Though Africa is home to relatively few palm species compared to other tropical regions (with 52 in Central Africa, 38 in West Africa, and 18 in East Africa), palms are essential to the continent's social, economic, and cultural life, providing food, medicine, and construction materials. Key Threats and Conservation Goals African palms are disappearing, with species like Hyphaene guineensis and Sclerosperma profizianum becoming rare. The slow life cycle of palms with seeds taking months or years to germinate and plants growing slowly makes them ...