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Current Issue - Volume 18 Issue 6 (September 2025)
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Cover story
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| Is Mankind Ready for Deep-Sea Mining?: Oceans' Critical Role in Climate Regulation and Sustaining Life on Earth |
 Dr Rina Mukherji’s article explores the contentious issue of deep-sea mining, emphasizing the urgent need to resolve environmental, financial, regulatory, and governance concerns. Despite growing interest in extracting minerals from the seabed, many governments, institutions, and experts call for a moratorium, warning of irreversible harm to marine biodiversity and ecosystems that remain largely unexplored. The article outlines mining methods, the threat of sediment plumes, and evidence of long-lasting ecological damage. Highlighting the oceans’ critical role in climate regulation and sustaining life on Earth, the author argues for stronger oversight and a continued pause until risks are fully understood and addressed.
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Feature |
| Nature's Cleanup Crew Enzymes: The Green Solution to Plastic Pollution |
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 Plastic pollution, a major environmental threat, demands sustainable solutions beyond incineration and landfilling. Recent research highlights the role of microbes and enzymes in biodegrading plastics into harmless compounds. Over 90 microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria, produce enzymes that break chemical bonds, enabling eco-friendly plastic recycling. Breakthroughs such as Ideonella sakaiensis degrading PET, plastic-eating larvae, and fungi targeting polyurethane demonstrate this potential. Real-world applications, from Carbios’ enzymatic recycling in France to Eastman Chemical’s innovations in the US, showcase progress. Though challenges remain in scaling efficiency and costs, enzyme-driven plastic degradation offers a promising path towards circular economy and cleaner ecosystems.
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TERI Analysis |
| COP30 in Belém: Will Ambition Take a Back Seat? |
On September 24, 2025, the UN General Assembly convened a high-level special event on Climate Action, where leaders renewed calls for accelerated national climate action, stronger financing commitments, and bridging the gap between pledges and delivery ahead of COP30. In his opening remarks, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, emphasized that “it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees by century’s end” and urged countries to submit more ambitious climate plans without delay. In this context, R R Rashmi, has authored an insightful article on COP30 in Belém—a conference that will test whether global ambition can withstand mounting geopolitical tensions, financial constraints, and widening implementation gaps. read
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Green Challenges |
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| India Advances Ethanol Blending: To Power a Greener Future |
India has advanced its ethanol blending programme, achieving 20 per cent ethanol-petrol mix (E20) across 90,000 fuel stations by 2025—five years ahead of schedule. The initiative aims to reduce crude oil imports, cut emissions, and benefit farmers. Ethanol production rose from 38 crore litres in 2013–14 to 660 crore litres in 2025, saving `1 lakh crore in foreign exchange. While E20 offers environmental and economic gains, experts urge caution for older vehicles and long-term engine performance. A countrywide study should be conducted to assess any long-term impact on those vehicles, so that the upgradation to E30 standard hereafter becomes smooth and seamless, says Nava Thakuria.
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Special Report |
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| The Third United Nations Ocean Conference: Promise versus Outcomes |
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The Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), held in Nice in June 2025, advanced global action on Sustainable Development Goal 14—Life Below Water. Focused on multilateral cooperation, financing, and marine science, it emphasized ratifying the High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. India highlighted its coastal initiatives, marine pollution control, and the SAHAV digital ocean data portal as key contributions to sustainable ocean governance. Keep reading this article by Arvind Kumar to know more…
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Pioneer |
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| Natural Farming and India's Food Security: Why Going Back to Roots is the Way Forward |
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The article highlights natural farming as a sustainable solution to India's food security and climate challenges. Unlike chemical-based agriculture, natural farming works with ecological systems, regenerating soil health, conserving water, and reducing pollution. It lowers farmers' dependence on costly inputs, improves resilience to droughts, and yields more nutritious food. While scaling up demands policy support, training, and market incentives, combining traditional knowledge with modern science can make natural farming a mainstream, eco-friendly path for India's agricultural future.
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In Conversation |
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| Reclaiming the Future: How Blue Planet is Turning Trash into Transformation |
In this interview with TerraGreen, Prashant Singh, Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Planet Environmental Solutions, shares his vision of transforming waste into a valuable resource through a technology-driven circular economy. He highlights the challenges of fragmented waste systems, financing barriers, and the role of policies and public–private partnerships in creating sustainable solutions. Singh explains how Blue Planet leverages AI, IoT, and data analytics for transparency and efficiency while balancing sustainability with commercial viability. He recounts success stories such as landfill reclamation in Chennai and biomethanation in Kerala, and envisions Blue Planet scaling globally to triple its impact by 2030.
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Special Feature |
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| Tourism in a Changing Climate of Jammu & Kashmir: A Delicate Ballet of Growth and Ecological Risk |
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In this article, Mutaharra A W Deva says Jammu & Kashmir’s record 23.6 million tourists in 2024 highlight tourism’s economic value but also its clash with intensifying climate change. Glacial retreat, snowless winters, and waste pollution are straining fragile ecosystems and livelihoods. Despite the 2014 State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) envisioning a Tourism Mission, actionable projects remain absent. The author calls for restoring the Climate Change Cell, enforcing eco-sensitive norms, and integrating sustainable, community-based tourism to protect the region from Uttarakhand- and Himachal-like disasters.
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Wildlife |
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| The De-extinction Dilemma: Is this Process Really Worth It? |
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Ben Lamm’s Colossal Biosciences aims to revive extinct species like the mammoth, dodo, and thylacine through genetic engineering, sparking global debate on the science and ethics of de-extinction. While advocates see it as a way to restore lost biodiversity and combat climate change, critics warn of commercialization, ethical risks, and limited ecological relevance. The revived animals, often “proxy species,” are not true replicas but gene-edited versions of living relatives. The article by C R Ramana Kailash argues that de-extinction, though scientifically remarkable, risks diverting attention and resources from conserving existing species and ecosystems—the only real path to sustaining biodiversity. The author feels that while the science behind de-extinction offers hope, our priority should always be ensuring that we protect the ecosystems and species we have now rather than betting on the ability to bring back those that are already gone.
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