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    In the forested slopes of Muse Danda in central Nepal, 75-year-old Hasta Bahadur Sathighare Magar still remembers when the land above his village looked lifeless. Dust storms swept across barren hills as cattle roamed freely, leaving little behind but eroded soil. Today, those same slopes are shaded by sal, sisau, jamun and bakaino trees, a transformation brought not by large-scale planting campaigns but by local people simply protecting the land and letting nature heal itself. The revival of Muse Danda Community Forest in Nawalpur district is part of a growing body of evidence from Nepal showing that degraded land can regenerate naturally when communities enforce basic conservation rules. By banning open livestock grazing, restricting access, fining illegal logging ...

    The Delhi government has approved the deployment of 32 high-capacity specialised machines to stop untreated waste from entering the Yamuna, marking a significant step in the city’s long-running effort to reduce pollution in the river. Officials said all machines will be made operational between January and March, with mechanical cleaning work scheduled to begin at the Najafgarh drain, identified as the largest contributor of pollution to the Yamuna. The initiative focuses on intercepting pollution at its source through large-scale mechanical desilting and the removal of sludge, solid waste and aquatic weeds from major drains before they discharge into the river. Cleaning operations will begin with the Najafgarh drain and will later be extended to other identified dra...

    Heatwaves are silently becoming one of India’s most dangerous climate threats, even as they continue to fall outside the country formal disaster framework. Unlike floods or cyclones, extreme heat leaves no visible destruction, but it claims lives quietly and steadily, especially among those who are most exposed and least protected. Every summer, temperatures in large parts of India cross 45 degrees Celsius. People collapse at construction sites, in agricultural fields, inside poorly ventilated homes, or while walking long distances for water. These deaths rarely make headlines. Heat-related fatalities are often recorded under causes such as cardiac arrest, dehydration, or respiratory failure, masking the true impact of extreme heat. Public health experts say heat ...

    Scientists are exploring a new way to tackle plastic pollution by turning milk-based materials into biodegradable plastic that naturally decomposes in soil. Researchers from Flinders University in South Australia have developed an experimental plastic film using milk proteins, starch, and nanoclay, offering a promising alternative to conventional plastic packaging. As concerns rise over environmental damage and the health risks linked to petroleum-based plastics, research into biodegradable materials is gaining momentum. The newly developed film is designed to maintain strength and flexibility while breaking down far more quickly than traditional plastic. The research team created the plastic film by blending calcium caseinate, a substance derived from casein, the...

    An underwater volcanic eruption in the Pacific Ocean has reshaped scientific understanding of how volcanoes can influence Earth’s atmosphere and climate. A new international assessment has revealed that the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai sent material to the very edge of space, triggering long-lasting changes in the upper atmosphere and causing cooling rather than warming. Unlike typical volcanic eruptions that mainly affect land and oceans, this rare event altered atmospheric chemistry, temperature patterns, and air circulation at altitudes rarely reached by volcanoes. The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano erupted in January 2022 from a shallow underwater location in the tropical Pacific. The interaction between magma and seawater caused an unusually ...

    India produces more than a billion metric tonnes of crop waste every year, a volume that quietly rivals the country’s biggest environmental challenges. For every tonne of rice or wheat harvested, at least two tonnes of residue are left behind in fields. Beyond agriculture, factories and forests add to the burden, with large quantities of bamboo, wood, coffee, tea, beer and oil residues going unused. Forest litter such as dried pine needles and invasive plants further increases fire risks, turning waste into a widespread and often ignored hazard. A large share of this biomass is either burned in the open or left to decompose, releasing massive amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Experts warn that if all crop waste were burned, the emissions woul...

On a dark December night in the vast Pacific Ocean, far from shipping lanes and coastlines, towering waves rose without a single human witness. No ship filmed them, no camera captured their fury. Instead, the first sign of their existence appeared quietly as lines and spikes on a satellite graph. Radar instruments orbiting Earth detected waves soaring close to 35 metres high, taller than a ten-storey building, challenging long-held assumptions about how extreme the open ocean can become. As a satellite passed silently between Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, its radar altimeter sent microwave pulses toward the ocean surface. These pulses returned with timing differences that revealed sudden, steep jumps in sea level. To scientists reviewing the data hours later, the pattern was unmistak...

Delhi residents woke up to dangerously polluted air on Tuesday morning as a thick blanket of smog and fog engulfed the national capital, pushing air quality levels deep into the severe zone. Data from the Central Pollution Control Board showed that air quality index readings crossed 400 at 27 monitoring stations across the city, while several locations slipped into the even more alarming severe plus category. At 9 am, the overall air quality index of Delhi stood at 415, marking a sharp deterioration from the very poor category recorded a day earlier. Out of 40 air quality monitoring stations, 27 reported readings above 400, a level associated with serious health risks for all age groups. Five stations recorded severe plus pollution, indicating extremely hazardous air conditions. Anan...

    In a breakthrough that links environmental protection with public health, scientists have developed a new process that converts discarded plastic bottles into paracetamol, one of the world’s most widely used pain relief medicines. The discovery suggests that plastic waste, often seen as an environmental burden, could become a valuable raw material for essential drugs. The research was carried out by a team at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where scientists engineered bacteria capable of transforming chemicals derived from plastic into paracetamol, the active ingredient found in many over-the-counter painkillers such as Tylenol. The findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature. At the centre of the research is polyethylene terephthalate, ...

    Delhi continued to struggle with hazardous air quality and dense fog on Saturday, as a majority of the city’s air monitoring stations recorded pollution levels in the severe category. The capital also witnessed its first cold wave day of the winter season, compounding health and mobility concerns for residents. More than half of Delhi’s air quality monitoring stations showed alarming readings, underlining that the pollution crisis was spread across the city and not limited to a few pockets. Out of thirty-nine monitoring stations, twenty-two recorded an air quality index above four hundred, placing them firmly in the severe category. Areas such as Chandni Chowk, Rohini, Wazirpur, Anand Vihar and Punjabi Bagh emerged as the worst affected, with readings crossing four h...