Back to resources

Stop the waste from burying us: State or society is usually blamed, but let’s look upstream at producers of waste

Climate & Biodiversity | Feb 6, 2018

You cannot walk or drive more than a few metres in any Indian city without encountering mounds of rubbish. Even in our villages, you will find garbage billowing around fields, piling up along roads or even lining the forest floor. At many beaches, you are as likely to find your toes tickled by strands of plastic as by little fish.
It is no longer possible to look away.
India’s waste problem is gigantic, and with its economy growing steadily, it will be compounded manifold. Yet, our waste stream management has not even got off the ground.

View PDF

More like this

Animal Welfare  |  COVID-19  |  Climate & Biodiversity

Why Shutting Down Reserves to Prevent Covid Transmission to Tigers is a Questionable Move

A blanket ban could endanger wildlife and human livelihoods. India must seize opportunity to innovate to live with and reduce the risk from the inevitable future contagion * India’s Project Tiger is a success by any measure. Our 51 tiger reserves now boast of at least 3,000 tigers. More and more Indians flock to safari […]
Jun 14, 2021 |

Climate & Biodiversity

Message on Earth Day, 2020

“It’s true that the future just ain’t what it used to be!Fifty years used to be a long timeline. It isn’t anymore. After all, the Club of Rome was set up to address humanity’s “problematic” 52 years ago. And here we are now in 2020, having heeded very few lessons from that conversation, and maybe […]
Apr 22, 2020 | Extracts/Snippets

Climate & Biodiversity

Payments for Ecosystem Services

It is clearly time for a new social contract with the farmer and the tribal, if not as a moral imperative certainly as a strategic one. Two symbols come to mind immediately when we look at India as it is instead of through the aspirational prism of an India shining or poised. One: the disenfranchised […]
Aug 3, 2007 | Article

Climate & Biodiversity

Romancing the Black Panther - Rohini Nilekani with Usha KR

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani in conversation with Usha KR about conservation, our connection with the environment, and her fascination with the black panther of Kabini. This was held as part of BIC’s Bangalore Literature Festival, 2020.    Picture this – we are all in Kabini, waiting for Blacky, the panther of […]
Dec 13, 2020 |