When the landscape of a city changes over time, when there is more demanded of it every day than it can provide, we risk reducing our natural environment to a mere reserve. How much of a thought can we spare it then? What happens to something that no longer holds our attention? We stop noticing […]
Below is Vikas’ account as he travels to three regions in Jharkhand and asks residents about their relationship to their ‘home’, pokes at the changing aspirations of rural India, and wonders if a transition from interventions to responses might be more meaningful. Indian villages are a treasure-trove of resources, cultures and skills, traditionally passed down […]
The climate crisis manifests differently across different regions. Its impact on varying wildscapes and species can take any form ranging from glacial melt in the snowy Ladakh, to the bleaching of corals along the coasts of India. That being the case, every region would have to ask its own questions, and explore its own unique […]
Two years is but a blip in the history of our planet. The Rainmatter Foundation is past the two-year mark. That day came and went, and we were unsure if we ought to make an announcement or do something special. “What’s there to celebrate? An entire Himalayan town has been sinking, there’s been only […]
ਅਨਾਜ Anāja; Punjabi (Cereal/grain) Photos: Nandhu Kumar/Unsplash We are passing through a period of transition. As the Southwest monsoon takes leave from the Indian subcontinent, the kharif harvest sets in. The crop, especially rice, is associated with abundance. India is estimated to have produced a record 127.93 million tonnes of rice in 2021-22. That it […]
शहरी पारिस्थितिकी (Shaharee paaristhitikee, Hindi) Urban ecology Rainbow Drive layout in Bangalore was one of the flood-affected areas this August and September. Photo by KP Singh via Citizen Matters Water has been the cornerstone of civilization. Cities have sprawled themselves into existence along river banks and sea coasts for thousands of years. Over time, we’ve […]
برف کا تودہ (Barf ka toda, Urdu) Glacier Photo by Ahmed Radwan/ Unsplash From heatwaves and shrinking rivers to parched fields and monstrous floods, the world witnessed extreme events throughout August. The flooding in Pakistan, compounded by glacial lake outbursts, is yet another reminder of how vulnerable we are in the face of the climate […]
বানপানী (Bānapānī, Assamese) Flood Photo by David Talukdar/Unsplash In the words of the Adi people, it is a river “that flows through our heart,” chronicles Aarti Kumar-Rao in an intimate and enlightening essay (which you can also listen to). The river, one of the longest in the world, changes course and washes away villages in […]
землі (zemli, Ukrainian; land) ‘Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.’ The context for these words is what makes them particularly poignant and fierce. The words themselves are as much about angst, defiance, courage, resilience, hope, life, death, triumph and beauty […]
Why did the mushroom walk into the bar? To expand its network! Jokes aside, fungi networks are so vital that they are termed the “circulatory system of the planet”. Fungi can colonise, multiply and survive in air, water, dung and even on foam. These microorganisms–neither plants, nor animals–are widely prevalent, and are present in everyday […]
हयों (Garhwali: Hyun; Snow) A huge shout out to the Waste Warriors and Linger teams for this digest’s title. There are dozens of words for snow and snowflakes: Qanik (snow falling; Inuit/Yupik), nysnö (new snow; Norwegian), feefle (snow swirling around a corner; Scots), snjómugga (a small snowfall; Icelandic), kramsnö (snow that can be easily shaped […]
ڀنڀوري (Sindhi: Bhimbhori; Dragonfly) Migrations make for spellbinding stories and compelling heroes. November started with a bird setting the record for the longest recorded flight by a land bird. An Eastern bar-tailed godwit, identified as 4BYWW, journeyed from Alaska to New Zealand, covering a distance of 12,200km, flying for more than eight days straight! Her […]
शरद (Hindi, sharad; Autumn) Salaam. When there’s a nip in the air, when there’s a cold breeze blowing, when some of the birds begin to leave, when the trees switch to a riotous wardrobe and when the leaves desert the branches to kiss the ground… can you resist the seduction of autumn? India is mostly […]
പ്രതീക്ഷ (Malayalam: pratīkṣa; Hope) What might you expect from a story of two men behind prison walls? That perhaps it’s about violence? Is bleak? Even tragic? The Shawshank Redemption is all of that. It is also an account of an unlikely friendship between two people from starkly different maps… a tale that encompasses music, […]
ತಾಪ (Kannada: taapa; heat, fire) August was the month of warnings and wildfires. The IPCC released its “most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system” as part of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The Physical Science Basis is the first of the multi-part AR6. Explore it through the many datasets on this interactive atlas. And […]
धारा (dhaara; stream) Greetings for a new month! Rain is one of the things that sets a dhaara, a stream, in motion. Record rainfall in July triggered streams and rivers to flood many regions across the country. It’s rarely possible to tame the forces of nature. Have a go at this simulation game by the UN […]
Petrichor Salud! No, you did not sign up for this. But do stay for a bit. And then some. This is our first monthly digest. We hope to encapsulate our activities and learnings from the last month, highlight the work being done by grantees, post announcements, amplify asks from the network and pin environment-related information […]
Viewing ‘keystone’ species as networking-hubs for interactions within an ecosystem As city-dwellers, if we had to describe a forest, we would be talking about a wild space with lots of trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers densely packed, growing atop one another. Thousands of insects, birds, herbivores, snakes and lizards sprawled all across. Close enough? More […]
A slow and gradual transformation is unfolding in Yelachatti. This quiet village on the fringes of Bandipur National Park in the southern Indian state of Karnataka is where a few farmers are turning their parched and denuded farmlands into verdant fields. Yet, this is not an ‘…and-they-lived-happily-ever-after’ fairytale. This is an account of marginal farmers, […]
As we try and find solutions that can address climate change and ecological degradation, we do realize this cannot just be confined to the small confines of research, projects run on grant funding and pilots and experiments. The current structures around our choices, our food, our economies, our industries are a very big part of […]