TBE proudly supports Sunita Narain and CSE in their quest for a better and a greener planet.

Some innovations change lives. A favourite of mine is the village milk collection system, a cooperative model. There's a dairy in the village, people bring in milk, the dairy in-charge places a sample on an instrument, checks the fat content, prints a receipt that tells the seller the fat content and the price. Once a week, the milk-seller encashes receipts. As most villages do not have electricity, instruments and computers work on diesel generators. Every day the co-operative's van arrives to take the milk for sale in the nearby town. Read more

TBE supports Sunita Narain and CSE.

Now that the reality of climate change has been accepted even by its strongest sceptics, there is a rush to find answers. The latest buzz is to substitute the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels with biofuels-fuel processed from plants. Unfortunately, the way we are going about implementing this "good" idea could mean we are headed from the frying pan to the fire.

There are two kinds of biofuel: ethanol, processed from sugarcane or corn, and biodiesel, made from biomass. Climate-savvy Europe gave the first push to biofuel, mandating they should contribute 6 per cent of fuels used in vehicles by 2010 and 10 per cent by 2020. The bulk of biodiesel comes from domestically grown rapeseed. But to meet its growing needs, it is looking at importing soyabean-based fuel from Brazil and Argentina, and palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. Read more

TBE supports Sunita Narain and CSE in their battle for the environment. We have no right to destroy what we cannot create in the name of economy and enterprise.

I wrote last fortnight about how mining in Goa for iron ore was ripping its forests and devastating its people. I wrote of the violence and protests I saw in its villages, where miners were pitted against people angry at the loss of their cultivable lands and their water bodies. I had asked then: what are we doing? I ask this again. The fact is that Chinese demand for iron ore has increased its price from US $14 per tonne to US $60. This has spurred a black gold rush-mining companies are bidding for areas that were either closed or not opened because they were unprofitable or unviable. In many cases, these mines had not been worked because they were close to villages and companies knew that people would probably protest. Now none of this matters. The industry says this is boom time-the Chinese are willing to buy low-grade ore, which Goa has aplenty. The Chinese want this ore, as they will blend it with better quality ore. And their appetite is massive. Read more

In the latest issue of CSE Bulletin Sunita Narain has written a very thought provoking article on the ecological decay in Goa. Thanks Sunita. You are doing a great job!

We were standing between a massive mine and a stunning water reservoir.Local activists were explaining to me that this iron ore mine was located in the catchment of the Salaulim water reservoir, the only water source for south Goa. Suddenly, as I started clicking with my camera, we were surrounded by a jeepload of men. They said they were from the mine management and wanted us off the property. We explained that we had come on a public path and that there were no signs to indicate that we were trespassing.. But they were not in a mood to listen. They snatched the keys of our jeep, picked up stones to hit us and got abusive. Before things got totally out of hand, we decided to leave. They followed us till they saw that we left the area and most importantly, could not stop and take more photographs. Read more

Environment hasn't been high on the agenda in India anyways. Now the country's largest company Reliance Energy is endangering the chikoo belt of India, a part of the fragile ecosystem of North Mahastra. CNN-IBN investigation found the the emissions from Reliance Enerygy has actually created so much heat that the entire climate of the place has changed. Read more