Climate Emergency

After the ivory kingpin, Umesh Aggarwal was nabbed in 2015, there were various discussions within the Kerala forest department officials on what could be the next steps to detect and prevent such crimes. The officials, after intense brainstorming, brought in a robust system by the name Hostile Activity Watch Kernel (HAWK). The system was developed by Kerala-based Leopard Tech Labs, a company formed by a group of young enthusiastic techies, in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Kerala Forest Department. The shift from manual to a digital system for clocking crimes showed great potential to not just reduce and prevent wildlife crimes but also generate data that could throw patterns to predict such crimes in future. 

The first of its kind system, spearheaded by the Kerala forest department, HAWK is slowly taking its footsteps to the adjacent states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, and hopes to expand to the other Indian states to have a uniform system across the country to stop such organised wildlife crimes.

Sharada Balasubramanian, an environmental and development journalist traveled to Forest department offices in Kerala where this system was implemented. She spent time at Periyar Tiger Reserve to understand how it works. She spoke to Dr. Jose Louies, from Wildlife Trust of India, Manu Sathyan, DFO at Periyar Tiger Reserve, Sajesh Kumar ACF, Kerala forest department and Allen Shaji from Leopard Tech Labs, who developed the system HAWK. 

 This investigation is part of a series on environmental crime in Asia, supported by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized  Crime, the Henry Nxumalo Foundation and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental  Journalism."

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Elephants are among the endangered species in India. Over the years, with demand for ivory, tuskers have been particularly targeted and killed. Despite laws, and bans in place, ivory poaching still continues. When male tuskers are poached for the ivory trade, it also threatens the future population of elephants. 

In 2015, an ivory kingpin was nabbed in New Delhi for procuring tusks and creating artefacts out of it, and exporting them discreetly. The massive effort by the name Operation Shikar was all in the media limelight. 

For this story, Sharada Balasubramanian, an environment and development journalist, travelled to Trivandrum, Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, Thekkady and spoke to Jose Louise, Director, Wildlife Trust of India, Dr Surendra Varma, Asian elephant scientist, Manu Sathyan who was the DFO at Periyar Tiger Reserve, and Sajesh Kumar, ACF, and part of Forest Intelligence Unit or FIC. The various sources in the story spoke extensively on various aspects of poaching and wildlife laws prevalent in the system.

This investigation is part of a series on environmental crime in Asia, supported by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized  Crime, the Henry Nxumalo Foundation and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental  Journalism."

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In this episode, host Rakesh Kamal talks to Sidharth Singh and Simon Bennett who work at the International Energy Agency.  They are experts in Energy policy and have started a podcast recently called “Innovation Frontlines” dealing with the Clean energy innovation. They talk about their new podcast, the challenges innovators are facing in clean energy space and how important innovation is?

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According to the World Weather Attribution, the heatwave in India and Pakistan this year was a one-in-a-hundred-year occurrence. With global warming, things are only expected to get worse. Heatwave advisories ask people to not step out during extreme temperatures, but daily wage labourers have no choice. With unbearable working conditions, a 2021 study published in Nature Communications found that in India, the productivity lost per year due to heat is equivalent to 23 million jobs. 

In this episode of Climate Emergency, host Suryatapa Mukherjee explores solutions with Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, the director at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar who designed South Asia’s first heat action plan for the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat; and Jagdish Patel, the Director of Peoples Training And Research Centre, who works on occupational health and safety rights. She also spoke to Arati Naskar and Sheela Chakraborty who work as sweepers with Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and Habibul who is contractually hired as a construction worker. 

Stay Off Work In Afternoon, Labourers Told | Bhubaneswar News - Times of India 
Kolkata heat rise worst in world, IPCC global warming report finds - Telegraph India 
Disaster deaths, sinking: Unprepared Kolkata face multiple climate risks, warns IPCC report 
Heat Exposure, Cardiovascular Stress and Work Productivity in Rice Harvesters in India: Implications for a Climate Change Future 
Employee's State Insurance Corporation, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India – ESIC Scheme |Coverage. 

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Historically India has been a handloom wearing country. Handlooms were not so easily available and would take time and were relatively expensive. But with changing times we have started to see the change. More and more clothes are now produced and more thrown away every year. We buy clothes for no reason. We buy what we feel like, we buy because there is a sale and not necessarily because we need it. We have a wardrobe full of clothes but still feel we don't have enough to wear. The number of times we wear the same clothes has come down and the number of clothes we throw away has increased. But what does buying clothes have to do with Climate change you may ask. To talk about this host Rakesh Kamal talks to Dr. Monika Gera, who is the Founder of One for Blue, a sustainable clothing company.

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The increasing threat of climate change and the contribution of waste to the emissions is something that needs to be taken seriously. And as individuals, by living sustainably each one of us can make an impact. But many of us are often stuck with questions like how do you begin this zero waste journey? where do you start?  and will it really make any difference?

To know this and more in this episode host Rakesh Kamal talks to Srini Swaminathan and Shubashree, authors of the books (Im)perfectly Zero Waste: A No-Nonsense Guide to Living Sustainably in India and The Everyday Eco-Warrior: 110 Easy Tips for a Zero-Waste Life. Both these books are really interesting in understanding what Zero waste means in an Indian context and give really good examples of how to cut down your waste. 

You can buy their physical copies of the book in a local book store near you or on Amazon. You can also buy it on Kindle and help save some emissions. 

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To earn their daily bread, fishers from Tamil Nadu put their lives and property in peril while crossing the maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka in the Palk Bay. The large trawlers they operate, however, wreak havoc on the shallow waters and destroy the marine ecosystem. This leaves precious little marine life for the fishers across the border. What are the roadblocks India has faced in solving this dispute, and what is the way forward? 

For this episode of the Climate Emergency, independent journalist Hariprasad Radhakrishnan travels to Pudukottai. He also spoke with V Suryanarayanan, former director of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Madras and Prabhakar Jayaprakash, a doctoral scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to understand the challenges faced by the fishing communities and get insights into possible solutions to the Indo-Sri Lankan fishing dispute. 

Show notes

T.N. fisherman drowns after boat rams Sri Lankan vessel
Sri Lanka Navy

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Global temperatures are already 1.2 degree C higher than pre-industrial era. As the UN’s annual climate conference COP26 drew to an end with little progress on most key issues, it drew reactions of anger and disappointment from young activists.

The world leaders needed to agree on some key issues: who will do how much to reduce their carbon emissions, the finance that will be given to the developing countries to cope with the changes already underway, and whether countries with historically high carbon emissions will compensate the vulnerable countries for the ongoing damage. 

All through the COP, Scotland’s Glasgow, the venue for this year’s conference was buzzing with activity. There were roaring protests by the young outside, lots of pushback from the developing countries inside in the negotiation rooms, and plenty of big speeches by the world leaders.

In the end, little was delivered. India stepped up to block coal phaseout and watered it down to coal phase down, at a time when its capital is engulfed in thick air pollution. On the plus side, COP26 did see a rise in conversations about the public health fallouts of climate change.

In this episode, we string together the key highlights from COP26.

Disha Shetty reported from COP26 as a part of the 2021 Climate Change Media Partnership. 

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Are green crackers, the proclaimed panacea to the problem of air pollution caused due to firecrackers, solving the problem of air pollution? And can we do without a blanket ban for firecrackers?

For this episode, Hariprasad Radhakrishnan speaks to environmentalists and other experts to figure what are the possible solutions to the problem facing us this Diwali.

Tune in to this episode of the Suno India Show to find out!

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Almost every year since 1995, politicians and representatives from all over the world have been meeting in the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss ways to reduce CO2 emissions which cause climate change. Scientists have been producing reports in a collaborative manner and all say the same “Climate change is happening” and over years only say that it is worsening. All the countries came to an agreement in the 21st year of meetings in COP 21 called the “Paris agreement”. The sense of urgency with which climate change has to be addressed seems limited to words and not actions.

Since climate change affects all the countries in the world and the vulnerable the most and climate change is so interdisciplinary, there has always been some pressure from civil society. But for the last few years youth from across the world has played a very important role in bringing this issue forward. In this episode of Climate emergency, Rakesh Kamal talks to climate change activist Disha Ravi on youth climate activism, dissent and the role of the global south.

This episode also features a poem by feminist & activist Kamla Bhasin who passed away recently.

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