Author: Deshwale Science and Environment Desk

रियाद के किसी घर में सुबह नल खोलिए, तो ठंडा, साफ़ पानी आता है। इसमें अजीब कुछ नहीं लगता, जब तक आप नक्शा न खोलें। रियाद समुद्र से सैकड़ों किलोमीटर अंदर, रेत और पथरीले पठार के बीच बसा है। जिस देश की यह राजधानी है, वहाँ एक भी स्थायी नदी नहीं है और एक भी स्थायी झील नहीं। फिर भी 3.2 करोड़ से ज़्यादा लोग वहाँ रहते हैं। उनका गिलास कौन भरता है? पहला जवाब आसमान से नहीं मिलता। देश के ज़्यादातर हिस्सों में साल भर में 100 मिलीमीटर या उससे भी कम बारिश होती है। संयुक्त राष्ट्र के खाद्य…

A city becomes more liveable not only when its streets are cleaner and its skies are clearer, but also when its people learn to care for one another. In Mumbai, where festivals bring neighbourhoods alive with music, lights and celebrations, balancing tradition with environmental responsibility is an important part of urban life. A recent Bombay High Court hearing has brought this issue into focus. On 26 October 2026, the court expressed disappointment after the Maharashtra government informed it that some celebrities approached for an anti-pollution awareness campaign had sought appearance fees. The bench also raised concerns about late-night firecracker violations…

For many Mumbaikars, the sea is more than a beautiful view. It is where people go for an evening walk, spend time with family, watch the sunset or take a break from the city’s busy routine. For fishing communities, it is also a source of livelihood. Beneath its familiar blue surface, the sea supports countless forms of marine life. Now, a proposal to introduce floating digital billboards along Mumbai’s coastline has raised an interesting question: how can the city find new ways to fund development while protecting the natural environment that makes its waterfront special? The Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB)…

Every October, the Kashmir Valley starts to change. The green leaves of the chinar trees slowly turn yellow, then orange, and finally deep red. By November, whole avenues seem to glow in the afternoon light. For people in the Valley, this is more than a pretty sight. It is a sign that winter is close. But the colours also tell a clear story about how a tree prepares for the cold. The chinar (Platanus orientalis), called buen in Kashmiri, is the state tree of Jammu and Kashmir. It is deciduous, which means it sheds all its leaves before winter. Before…

Imagine placing two glasses of water on a table. Beside one, you write the words “love” and “thank you”. Beside the other, you write “hate” and “anger”. Can these simple words change what happens inside the water? It sounds like something from a story, but this unusual question became the subject of a bestselling book. Published in 2004, The Hidden Messages in Water by Japanese author Masaru Emoto presented an idea that captured the imagination of readers around the world. Emoto claimed that water exposed to positive words, thoughts and emotions formed beautiful ice crystals, while water exposed to negative…

Japan has begun a long journey to investigate one of the Solar System’s unanswered questions. Its spacecraft is heading towards Mars, not to land on the Red Planet, but to study its two small moons and bring a piece of one of them back to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard an H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on 20 October 2026 (Japan time). The mission will explore Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. Its main goal is to collect a sample from Phobos and return it…

Every morning, a bag leaves our kitchen and disappears down the stairs. Most of us never see where it goes next. India generates about 1.85 lakh tonnes of solid waste every day, according to CPCB figures for 2023-24, and Mumbai alone produces roughly 6,500 to 7,000 tonnes of it daily. Behind each bag is a chain of rules, machines and people. Let us follow one bag and see how a neighbourhood can make that journey work. It starts at home, with a rule that is now clearer than before. Since April 1, 2026, the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 ask…

मुंबई के बांद्रा में आयोजित माउंट मैरी फेयर 2026 में धार्मिक आस्था और सामुदायिक सहभागिता के साथ पर्यावरण संरक्षण को लेकर जागरूकता का संदेश भी देखने को मिल रहा है। हिंदुस्तान कोका-कोला बेवरेजेज (HCCB), बृहन्मुंबई महानगरपालिका (BMC) और Sangam Pratishthan के सहयोग से GreenSweep पहल के तहत इस्तेमाल की गई PET बोतलों के जिम्मेदारीपूर्ण संग्रह और रीसाइक्लिंग को प्रोत्साहित किया जा रहा है। इस पहल का उद्देश्य मेले में आने वाले श्रद्धालुओं और आगंतुकों के बीच कचरा प्रबंधन, बोतलों के उचित निपटान और पर्यावरण के प्रति जिम्मेदारी की समझ को बढ़ावा देना है। इसके लिए मेले के प्रमुख स्थानों पर…

For years, the Bhalswa landfill has been Delhi’s most visible symbol of a broken waste system. A 70-acre hill of trash, rising higher than nearby buildings, sitting in full view of the city that made it. Now, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi says the mountain is finally coming down. Officials have set December 31, 2026, as the deadline to clear the site completely. By July 31 this year, 99.07 lakh metric tonnes of old, buried waste had already been removed. On paper, that sounds like a victory. Drive past Bhalswa today and the mound does look smaller than it once…

India highlighted its science-based efforts in snow leopard conservation at the Russian-Indian Roundtable Meeting on Snow Leopard Study and Conservation held in Moscow on August 26, 2026. The meeting took place at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It brought together officials, researchers and conservation experts from India and Russia to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in snow leopard research, monitoring and conservation. The meeting was organised under the framework of the Partnership Agreement between the Interregional Association ‘Irbis’ and the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA). The agreement was signed in December…