India is sitting on a potential powder keg of serious infection—while the lengthening COVID-19 pandemic has spiked up the country’s generation of biomedical wastes, the infrastructure for managing this extremely hazardous waste is on the verge of collapse, finds a new assessment from the Centre for Science and Environment. To get access to this story, "Subscribe Now" in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours...

The number and frequency of lightning strikes are increasing globally. The proverbial bolts from the blue are killing more people every subsequent year. Between April 2020 and March 2021, 18.5 million lightning strikes were recorded in India. This was a 34 percent increase from the 13.8 million strikes between April 2019 and March 2020. To get full access to this story, "Subscribe Now", in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours...

India’s coal-fired power plants have been rampantly flouting the country’s 2015 water consumption norms, says a new survey report released recently by the Centre for Science and Environment. To get full access to this story, "Subscribe Now", in just Re.1, for the next 24 hours...  

Even as biomedical waste generation in India grew from 559 tonnes per day to 619 tonnes per day between 2017 and 2019, the percentage of BMW treated dropped from 92.8 percent to 88 percent. Bihar (where 69 percent of BMW remained untreated) and Karnataka (where 47 percent of BMW was not treated) have been the worst offenders. To get full access to this story, "Subscribe Now" in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours.

The water quality of India's 19 major rivers did not improve significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown. While Ganga and four other rivers became dirtier, the water quality in another seven rivers remained unchanged. Only four of the rivers showed 100 percent compliance with the primary water quality criteria for outdoor bathing during the pre-lockdown and lockdown period. To get access to the full story, "Subscribe Now" in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours...

Farmer protests in India have registered an almost five-fold increase since the year 2017. From 34 major protests across 15 states in 2017, the number has now gone up to 165 protests across 22 states and Union territories. To get full access to this story, "Subscribe Now" in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours...