Priyanka Shankar

Environment technology leverages innovative tools to help solve some of humanity's most urgent crises such as food security, biodiversity loss, human-wildlife conflicts, climate change, disasters and more.

Change of rules in Indian Army hiring scheme has affected young men in Nepal who are training to join armies worldwide.

Heat waves and prolonged heat stress result in income losses and poor health for workers in informal sectors in Indian cities, a new study finds. The study examined 396 workers living in two informal settlements in Delhi, during the peak heat of May-June 2019 and found significant economic losses and health impacts due to high temperatures.

To achieve tiger conservation targets with minimal human-tiger conflict, relocation of human settlements within tiger reserves, is seen as a solution. A recent study by researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), published in the Journal of Wildlife Sciences, states that “it is neither feasible nor realistic to consider all villages for relocation.” The […]

Women are disproportionately affected by climate challenges, but are often underrepresented and excluded from decision-making.

“Disasters do not stop at geographical boundaries. What happens upstream, affects downstream and vice versa. That is why we need regional cooperation in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, which is shared by a group of countries,” said Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international organisation based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the launch of Hindu Kush Himalayan Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Hub, which aims to accelerate understanding, information-sharing and action to address the increasing number of disasters in the Himalayan mountains which are spread across

On the morning of January 6, when Babul Chandra Das from Tezpur, saw the news on TV, about an accident in a rat-hole mine near Umrangso in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, he became anxious. That’s where his wife’s elder brother Sanjit Sarkar, 35, had gone to work. Das and the rest of Sanjit’s […]

Geckos are some of the most fascinating creatures in the animal kingdom. Geckos are lizards, yet not all lizards are geckos. With tails that can be detached and regrown at their will, a flat and flexible tongue that can clean their own eyes, geckos have evolved to thrive in different habitats. They do not have hard scales covering their soft skins. Their eggs however are hard-shelled and round. Many gecko species are even capable of vocalisation.

The mass death of olive ridley turtles on Chennai's coast in the last few weeks, has sparked nationwide concern. The total coastline of Chennai has seen more than 1,000 deaths, according to several news reports . The death toll has crossed 346 in the 13-kilometre stretch between Neelankarai and Marina beach alone in January 2025, which is the highest for a month in Chennai, according to the data shared by the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), a voluntary group conserving olive ridleys.

In the 1990s, many Nepali-speaking citizens of Bhutan fled their country to escape oppression under the country's “One Nation, One People” law. After landing in temporary refugee camps in Nepal, many of them resettled in third countries. But some remain in the camps more than 30 years later, holding out hope that they can reclaim the land they once owned. Priyanka Shankar brings us the story, which she reported with Rojita Adhikari.