The year 2018 brought us some startling news from the natural world: humans have eradicated 60% of wildlife since 1970.
Half the Great Barrier Reef is bleached from global warming. Poaching has driven the northern white rhino down to just two, and the Spix macaw is now extinct in the wild thanks to pet trade. If that isn’t enough destruction by one species — us — an insect apocalypse might be underway too.
But from the moraines of this destruction spring little stories of hope.
Stories of individuals and communities that are working to save a species, an ecosystem or an urban environment.
Green Counters 2018 is a special edition dedicated to such initiatives that are working to renew, regenerate and regain what’s been lost.
There’s a woman studying limbless amphibians in Meghalaya, while another is conserving dugongs in the Andamans. There’s a Naga village that has stopped hunting to create a wildlife reserve, while another has banned firecrackers to save birds. There are stories from the cities too. A kabaddi player campaigning for clean air in Chennai, or Bengaluru’s nature-lovers nurturing butterflies in a little urban patch.
And in the dizzying vortex that is Mumbai, flamingos have found a safe oasis, thanks to the residents of an apartment complex.
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