Kundan Pandey

In the vibrant town of Ranapur, the streets lead to Kumbhar Mohalla, a neighbourhood distinguished by rows of handcrafted earthenware displayed in front of the houses. But deeper into the narrow lanes, the lively facade begins to fade. Some homes, once alive with the rhythmic sounds of potters at work, now stand silent with doors firmly shut. This stark contrast tells the story of the once-thriving livelihood of pottery that, despite its rich heritage, is quietly fading away. In many houses, tailoring machines have now replaced lines of pots.

Brajesh Kumar's skilled hands move with rhythmic precision as he shovels coal into the roaring brick kiln. With swift, practiced motions, he removes the hot lid of the furnace using an iron rod and pours in coal. Dark clouds gather, hinting at impending rain. Brajesh is racing against time to complete his work before the kiln must close for the monsoon. His colleague, Rajendra Paswan, assists him in this urgent task. This scene unfolds in Dobhi, a town in Bihar's Gaya district, where the race to bake bricks before the rains is in full swing.

Mohammad Shakeel Ahmad, 34, who works at the King's International Tannery based in Unnao, points to an unusually empty section of the facility where raw hides are typically stored. “This is where we store raw hides, but it is empty today and has been like this for the past 15 days. We will only get new raw hides in about a month now. We only bring them in when we have orders,” says Ahmad.

In 2020, when the world was struggling with the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) and businesses were closing, Binod Kumar Mahto, who had been associated with the marketing department of a bank in Pune for a decade, decided to return to his village in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.

An urban explosion and changes in land use and land cover in India's two biodiversity hotspots, the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, are largely driving significant forest loss in the regions, researchers find.

Farmers in the semi-arid Marathwada region are desilting local water bodies for increased water availability and higher crop yield.

The potential of environmental goods and services is constrained by limited access to clean technologies and economic ambiguity over these products.

The Indian market for environmental technology is the sixth largest in the world and is expected to grow rapidly. However, limited access to clean technologies, largely controlled by developed nations, is a major barrier in this trade.

Moromi Hazowary of Kamrup district in Assam had clear aspirations – a stable life and a desire to give her son a better education. It is not a stroke of luck, but an invasive weed – water hyacinth – that is turning her hopes into reality. The 32-year-old’s family was dependent on farming and odd […]

With its honeycake-coloured layers of off-white, yellow, ochre, red and brown, the cliffs of Varkala in northern Thiruvananthapuram attract tourists from across the world starting November. This year, local conservationists are on a mission to save these ancient rock formations exposed to recent torrential rains, high waves, coastal erosion, and damage from infrastructure development measures.