After about 8,300 nautical miles Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne can’t wait to share their ‘tales of the high seas’ when they land in Cairns, Queensland Rowe (L) and Payne approach the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea on 17 October, 2025. Photograph: Brian Cassey/AFP/Getty Images Six months in a rowboat in the South… Read More Finish line in sight for British duo rowing nonstop from Peru to Australia
An Indonesian songbird once nearly extinct in the wild, the Bali starling, is making a comeback through community-led conservation on Nusa Penida and beyond. Heather Physioc NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray… Read More Indigenous-led protections spark Bali starling’s recovery in the wild
In a new study, scientists reconstructed streamflow records going back 1,300 years to show that the basin has faced its worst droughts over the period in just the last few decades. And those droughts are well outside the range of natural climate variability. Mehebub Sahana The Ganges, a lifeline for hundreds of millions across South Asia,… Read More The Ganga is drying faster than ever – here’s what it means for the region and the world
NB: My old schoolmates from the Sainik School Kunjpura will recall that the village of Kunjpura is named after the Demoiselle Crane, which is a sub-species of the Siberian crane. The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself. Our School magazine was named The Grey Kunj. In the winter the lake besides the school… Read More Siberian crane: Back from the brink
Teeming with wildlife under lush canopies, this area in Australia’s island state is one of the world’s most remarkable – and one most in need of protection Elfy Scott Witnessing Takayna/Tarkine is a rare privilege. After I press through metres of the dense, dry shrubs that skirt the forest floor, the rainforest quickly opens into… Read More Masked owls, wild devils & giant crayfish: inside the ancient forests of Tasmania’s Takayna
Global Witness More than 2,100 environmental activists were killed worldwide between 2012 and 2023, with Latin America holding the highest percentage globally, an international non-governmental organization (NGO) said Tuesday. The new report by Global Witness said an estimated 196 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2023 alone. The report found that… Read More Over 2,100 environmental activists killed worldwide between 2012 & 2023 / The violent erasure of land and environmental defenders
A group of 60 former civil servants has written to the Chief Justice of India, claiming that a “conflict of interest” in the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) could compromise the outcome of cases challenging the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023. In their open letter dated June 30, the signatories, including former secretaries, ambassadors,… Read More Conflict of interest in Central Empowered Committee may compromise FCAA cases: Retired bureaucrats write to CJI
By Angus Watson It appears in satellite pictures like great blotches of blue and green ink; swirling, spreading, sinking into parchment paper. In Australia’s arid center, those blotches represent a new inland sea, born from a deluge that has traveled hundreds of miles through the veins of a giant, parched continent. The rare event is now… Read More Rare event breathes life back into Australia’s arid outback, attracting both animals and tourists
Ellen Wayland-Smith admires how Is a River Alive? places the reader in immersive contact with the nature we regard as mere backdrop to human activity. Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane. 2025 IN RELIGIOUS COSMOGONIES, anthropologist Mircea Eliade argues in his 1957 book The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, the natural world… Read More What Would It Take to Re-Sacralize Nature?
Seven winners of environmental prize include Amazonian river campaigner and Tunisian who fought against organised waste trafficking Nina Lakhani Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize. The community campaigns led by the seven 2025… Read More Grassroots activists who fought corruption & corporate power share environmental prize
After the truth-shower 