Meenakshi Venkatraman offers a unique slant on recycling – an especially interesting one, from a teenager’s point of view. Singapore is refreshingly green for a people-packed urban paradise – in terms of eco-friendly technology as well as being quite vegetated for such a small country. Learning from a Grade 5-er I was at the Grade 5 exhibition in my school, remembering all the good times I had when I was in Grade 5. This exhibition is something many international schools here take part in, where the fifth graders have to choose, research and present their area of study. When I …

Once upon a time, on a faraway planet, a group of highly sophisticated beings were faced with a crisis. They had made great progress indeed, but it had come at a cost: profound changes to the planet’s natural cycles. Now their atmosphere was warming, their oceans acidifying and their food security was severely threatened. An emergency meeting was called to discuss possible solutions. After much brainstorming, someone came up with a brilliant idea – that reducing consumption and changing its patterns would help the planet recover and rejuvenate. But, asked a wise old individual: who would take the bold first …

Encourage youth to study mangroves Feb 2nd each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general, and the Ramsar Convention in particular. Mangrove The World Wetlands Day theme for 2012 is Wetlands and Tourism and it is …

Bamboo House India was established in Hyderabad in the year 2008 by two first generation entrepreneurs, Prashant Lingam & Aruna Kappagantula. It is a social enterprise utilizing bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural and tribal communities in the bamboo sector through business models designed to work at base of the economic pyramid and promote bamboo as an eco friendly substitute to wood, steel, iron & plastic. How it works. “There are various resources in local communities which, if harnessed through joint communities, corporate organizations, local authorities and CSO partnerships, based on capacity building and …

Undoubtedly, snakes are extremely beautiful creatures which intrigue all of us. While some are intimidated by these stunning looking reptiles, there are many who work in close proximity of snakes and are completely in awe of these quiet and calm beings who can get brutally aggressive if disturbed. Here’s a photo essay by Soham Mukherjee, a snake enthusiast who turned his passion for wildlife into his profession. Common Vine Snake: Thin and slender, this snake uses its color, shape and form very efficiently to hunt small birds and reptiles, sometimes including other snakes! Vine snakes are the only Indian snakes to …

Have you ever been fascinated by the colorful birds flying high in the sky, like an epitome of freedom and beauty at the same time? Don’t you sometimes wish that you were one of them? While it’s hard to fly like a bird, it’s possible to see them closely to understand more about them and know them with a deeper understanding. KV Eldhose organizes mesmerizing bird tours in Southern India and those who have been on his tours have seen 300 different species of birds during the expedition. Here, in conversation with Ek Titli, he tells us more on his …

CII CESD to organise Sustainability Solutions Summit & Exhibition in New Delhi on 25th-26th November, 2011 CII ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development is organising the sixth addition of one-of- its –kind conference with an interesting mix of stake-holders to discuss how sustainability by itself would involve in the future and affect them. The two day event called Sustainability Solutions: Summit & Exhibition at The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi on 25th -26th November, 2011 will explore challenges, opportunities, and strategies for bringing sustainability solutions to Indian Businesses.  Chief Guests for the Summit includes prominent leaders, Mr. Jayanthi Natrajan; Minister …

To get started with growing your crop you don’t need to have hectares of farm land. You can use just about anything that can hold the medium where your crop will be sown. To prove this, take a regular ‘dahi ka dabba‘ fill it with soil and leave it in the open. In a few days you’ll see the brown soil bearing some greens. Take that as a signal from nature as a bout of encouragement. Nature is kind, rewarding and enjoys experimentation: and today is what we’ll get our hands dirty in.  Things that you need are: Waste Pet …

It was 5 in the morning. In the earlier days one would hear a cock crow. These days all cocks are probably incarcerated in poultry farms. All one could hear was the rambling sound of speeding cabs. BPOs have ensured that Tata Indicas are on road 24 hours a day. Otherwise it was a peaceful morning. A soft, cold breeze was blowing. The sky was transitioning from black to blue as the sun’s rays were trying to make their way through. The first rays of the sun woke Finglas up. It was the start of another hard day’s work. His …

Change begins in us, in the choices we make for the things we believe in, says Sanjay Sondhi who took to full-time conservation at the age of 45. My love affair with nature began as a young child. During summer vacations in the serene hill station of Dalhousie, where my grandparents lived, long walks livened up the holidays. Loads of early memories linger… the sight of a Himalayan yellow weasel climbing up a pine tree in order to get to a bee hive, and scurrying back comically, after being stung by the bees. Plucking wild strawberries to make home-made jam, …