A panel of urban planners, academics and grassroots practitioners has warned that  India’s urban crisis  is increasingly becoming “a crisis of dignity,” driven by deepening inequality, ecological destruction and the growing marginalisation of the urban poor, according to a discussion hosted by the  Balwant Sheth School of Architecture ,  NMIMS University .

India's textile sector, valued at approximately USD 225 billion and projected to reach USD 350 billion by 2030, is sitting on a USD 9.4 billion opportunity buried in its own waste. Yet fragmented systems, absent infrastructure, and a near-total reliance on virgin materials are destroying that value annually, according to a major new report released by FICCI under the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Coalition (RECEIC). 

 A new report,  Toxic Finance , has sought to expose the critical role of the global financial sector in driving a massive and controversial expansion of the  petrochemical industry  across the United States. The analysis, compiled by a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations including the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and  Break Free From Plastic , claims that banks and investors have provided the vast sums of capital necessary to build over 100 new facilities or expansions, despite significant risks to human health, the climate, and the financial system itself.

  Civil society organisations and stakeholders from across India have presented stark evidence before the  Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj , alleging systemic violations of the  Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 , particularly in  Scheduled Areas  and tribal regions.

  A comprehensive new study by environmental research and advocacy organisation Toxics Link has painted a worrying picture of India's fading repair culture, warning that the trend towards replacement over repair is accelerating the country's already critical e-waste crisis.

A new study by a top consulting firm has found that  India’s cleantech sector  is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and  rising compensation costs .

  A major new scientific report reveals that Tamil Nadu has emerged as India's largest contributor to plastic waste, generating approximately 7.82 lakh tonnes annually and accounting for nearly one-fifth of the nation's total plastic pollution, despite having only six percent of India's population. The  report , titled "Reducing Plastic Pollution in Tamil Nadu, India: A Science-Based Strategy," was released under the India-Norway cooperation project INOPOL, a collaborative effort between the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Mu Gamma Consultants, and the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology.

  India must confront its accelerating ecological emergency with systemic reforms rather than symbolic gestures, climate and energy expert  Soumya Dutta  warned during an interactive workshop in  Ahmedabad  titled “India’s Environmental Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here Living?”. Introduced by  Jesuit activist Cedric Prakash  as both a scientist and people’s movement organiser, Dutta said India was already facing life-threatening consequences of environmental neglect.

  In a groundbreaking  study  spanning 26 countries across the  Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of  households burning plastic waste  as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in  Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and  energy poverty  is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

  Central India’s Upper Ken Basin , where the ancient  Bundelkhand Craton  meets the younger  Vindhyan sedimentary rocks , appears at first glance to be a quiet and time-worn landscape. But new research reveals that the region is still being actively shaped by deep, hidden tectonic forces. In a recent study, geographers  Kundan Parmar  and  Satheesh Chothodi  used high-resolution elevation data and underground gravity measurements to decode the subtle fingerprints of active deformation imprinted onto the basin’s rivers and valleys. 

  Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation , a  Dehradun -based public-interest organization working on  climate change ,  sustainable development  and  environmental issues in Uttarakhand , has released its preliminary  Factsheet on Char Dham Yatra 2025 . The document compiles data on pilgrimage days, footfall distribution, peak footfall dates and zero-pilgrim days across the five major pilgrimage sites— Kedarnath ,  Badrinath ,  Gangotri ,  Yamunotri  and  Hemkund Sahib —for the recently concluded  Char Dham Yatra  2025. The Foundation announced preliminary results in a fact sheet ahead of a comprehensive Char Dham Yatra 2025 report saying, long-term planning, collaborative governance and sustained stakeholder engagement are essential to ensure that the Char Dham Yatra remains spiritually meaningful and environmentally secure. Presenting the factsheet,  Anoop Nautiyal , Founder of SDC Foundation, not...

A detailed independent study titled “Bhandura Nala (Mahadayi Diversion)”, prepared by a group of committed environmentalists from  Karnataka  and  Goa , has strongly questioned the ecological and social viability of Karnataka government’s ambitious plan to divert water from the  Mahadayi river basin  (locally known as  Mhadei in Goa ) through the  Bhandura Nala tunnel project .

The  Asian Development Bank  has released a major  policy report,  'Bridging Climate and Biodiversity Law: Coherent, Rights-Based Governance in Asia and the Pacific', warning that Asia and the Pacific, including  India , face deepening climate and biodiversity crises unless countries urgently integrate their legal frameworks to deliver on both the  Paris Agreement  and the  Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework .  Published this month, the document highlights that the region is warming faster than the global average,  greenhouse gas emissions  continue to rise without peaking, and extinction rates are accelerating, while  fossil fuel subsidies  reached a staggering 1.3 trillion dollars in 2022 alone.

Environmental policy expert Shankar Sharma  has  written  to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and its affiliated institutions, expressing grave concern over India’s deteriorating ecological health. Citing the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s latest global review, which found that only  Khangchendzonga National Park  received a “Good” rating among 107 national parks, Sharma warned that the findings reveal a “serious concern for the overall health of the country’s flora, fauna, and environment.”

India’s ambition to transition to a resource-efficient and waste-free economy is hindered by fragmented regulation, weak enforcement, and uneven infrastructure, according to a new  213-page report  by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

  In a landmark judgment on November 3, 2025, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Central Zone Bench in Bhopal upheld the “Right to Life” of villagers from Jodhpura in North Rajasthan, directing wide-ranging remedial measures against environmental and health damages caused by the mining and stone crushing activities of UltraTech Cement Ltd. The order was delivered by Judicial Member Sheo Kumar Singh and Expert Member Sudhir Kumar Chaturvedi in the case Jodhpura Sangharsh Samiti vs Union of India & Ors (O.A. Nos. 143/2024 and 144/2024 CZ), marking a victory for the villagers after more than 1,060 days of struggle.

A new  Climate Inequality Report 2025 , released by the World Inequality Lab and UNDP, warns that global warming and economic inequality are tightly linked — with the richest 1% responsible for 41% of all emissions linked to private capital ownership. The report argues that climate change is not only a scientific crisis but also a “capital challenge,” driven by unequal ownership and investment patterns.

  A new report by the German environmental and human rights NGO Urgewald has revealed that banks and institutional investors have poured nearly $52 billion into the expansion of metallurgical coal, or “met coal,” despite global commitments to phase out coal financing. Between 2022 and 2024, banks provided $21.96 billion in loans and underwriting to met coal developers, while investors held $30.23 billion in securities of companies expanding coal mining operations. The report, Still Burning: How Banks and Investors Fuel Met Coal Expansion, warns that loopholes in coal exit policies have allowed continued support for coal used in steelmaking — a sector responsible for about 11% of global CO₂ emissions.

  As the world prepares for  COP30  in  Belém , a new global report has raised serious alarms about the continued expansion of coal-based industries, particularly in India and China. The 2025  Global Coal Exit List  (GCEL), released by Germany-based NGO  Urgewald  and 48 partners, reveals a worrying rise in  coal-to-chemical projects  and  captive power plants  despite mounting evidence of climate risks and tightening international finance restrictions.

   A recent peer-reviewed study has sharply criticized Project Cheetah—India’s high-profile initiative to reintroduce African cheetahs into the wild—as ethically compromised, scientifically flawed, and socially unjust. Titled “Delineating the Environmental Justice Implications of an Experimental Cheetah Introduction Project in India”, the paper is authored by Yashendu C. Joshi, Stephanie E. Klarmann, and Louise C. de Waal, and was published in  Frontiers in Conservation Science.