Microplastics are an invisible pollutant, affecting everything from ocean life to human health. They’re the size of a sand grain. At smaller than 5 millimetres (mm), microplastics enter us through the air we breathe, through food we eat and even through skin. Here’s why India should be taking this issue seriously.
Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh has a long-established leather industry with two major leather clusters, Jajmau and Unnao, that contribute significantly to the local economy. The legacy leather sector, however, is a polluting industry causing problems such as water pollution which has led to increased regulatory scrutiny and operational restrictions.
Kanpur’s tanneries are adopting innovative sustainable practices, such as Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) systems and water recycling, to reduce their environmental footprint.
The National Biodiversity Authority, which regulates and conserves India’s biological resources, is looking to expand Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) – geographic areas that are not legally protected but that also host biodiversity – as a strategy to meet its newly updated biodiversity goals.
In October 2024, India officially committed to the “effective” conservation of 30% of the country’s terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030, when it submitted its updated Biodiversity Plan and targets to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).
Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, posing serious threats to people and nature. Things are likely to worsen in the coming decades, but scientists argue urgent action can still limit the worst effects of climate change.
Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth’s average temperatures and weather conditions. The world has been warming up quickly over the past 100 years or so. As a result, weather patterns are changing.
Under new regulations, companies must back their environmental claims with credible evidence. Misleading advertising could result in fines or imprisonment, as the government pushes against greenwashing to ensure truthful marketing.
Companies using terms such as ‘eco-friendly’, ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ in their advertisements must substantiate their claims and include adequate qualifiers and disclosures under a new law against greenwashing.
The loss of trees is also a major threat to thousands of other plants, animals and fungi.
Just over one in three of the world’s tree species are now at risk of extinction, according to the latest update of IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.
For the first time, a majority of the world’s trees have been added to the list revealing that at least 16,425 of the 47,282 species assessed by the IUCN are at risk of extinction
