Life is busy as hell! My day starts at 7 AM (which by many is a late start), but for me it's quite an early start, because I sleep at 12, and wake up every 2-3 hours to check on my baby girl. Yes, I am a working mother and I love my...

"Fruits and vegetables that Delhiites consume everyday are practically unfit for human consumption," noted the Delhi High Court on March 5th, 2014. This was following the findings of the High Court appointed expert committee on the...

Its 3 am in the morning. As our car passes through the famous sea link I can see the 7 billboards that are to be occupied. They are tall imposing structures of 80 feet each. Our mission is quite simple: Set the place up for the...

It’s a wet, lazy Saturday afternoon. I stretch under the covers before I pull myself up, and get the newspaper. And make myself a cup of tea. Piping hot with a sprig of mint, just the way I like it. The thought of the weekend ahead,...

Rakhi is a festival that celebrates humanity, brotherhood and fraternity. It is about making relationships stronger and making a promise to protect and care for all that is important to us. The forests of Mahan are majestic. They...

For the last 10 years I have been vegan and I have been drinking a lot of Sulaimani (lime) tea. As I am vegan, I assumed drinking Sulaimani was being compassionate towards the environment and myself. Turns out I was completely wrong. A...

Sometimes you feel as if the ancient wisdom had it all figured out. At times it is just propaganda. However, the mystic charm of the ancient texts remains intriguing nonetheless. I hadn't heard of Vrikshayurveda until recently. It is...

It was only last week that we had a meeting with the giants in the corporate world, the Tatas. We were meeting their team in Bangalore about our public campaign on clean chai. It had been over forty five days since our brave activists...

Dear chai freaks and fiends, If you are an Indian, and a chai freak, you'll be thrilled to know that Wagh Bakri, the third largest tea marketing company in India has finally risen to #cleanchai. How did this happen? A few...

Every generation has seen the death of an idea and those ideas which do bear some intrinsic value to the advancement of mankind have reinvented themselves. Communism and socialism were on their death knell in a previous era, but in...

It was just another day for me back in Bangalore until my phone rang (tring- tring). On the other end was Alpha 1, that's when I knew this was "the call". Yes, this is when we realised that there's a cocktail of pesticides in our chai.

My system just cannot work without 3-4 cups of tea each day and of late we have umpteen options to choose from as we come across commercials regarding the varieties and health benefits of tea such as green, black, herbal and white tea...

On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, Greenpeace activists in Kolkata set out to do an awareness drive. They were outside the Writers Building, talking about the state's need to oppose the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India...

This is not new, as a matter of fact there has been no demand for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from anywhere in the world, ever. On the contrary, ever since foods containing GMOs were introduced in the nineties, they have...

The street play spread awareness about the ill-affects of genetically modified food on World Food in Delhi. © Greenpeace/Anshuman Akash “Khidki ke peeche kya hai, Khidki ke aage kya hai: Mon-san-to!” These were...

On Monday, September 5th, the Osia-Multiplex in Goa saw a lot of brinjals walking around the place. Greenpeace activists in Goa dressed up as brinjals and spoke to people about the dangers of genetically modified food. The idea was...

On September 6, Greenpeace along with citizens for a GM free India prepared the World’s Biggest GM-Free Baingan Bharta. The whole exercise was fun and saw an audience of around 200 people which included farmer leaders like Yudhvir...

What do you get when you put together kilos of brinjal, a gathering of hundreds of citizens and the voices of over 100,000 people who have signed a petition to stop the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill? You get...

Candles in the wind and the voices of many Delhi residents, echoed at India Gate, chanting ‘Monsanto Quit India’. It was a solemn evening on a day that marked an important milestone in India’s struggle for freedom. It was the day...

In a landmark decision, the Karnataka government decided to pull the plug on all field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops across the state, securing the environment, farmers and health of people in the state from...

Recently, the Thailand government came up with a Rice Master Plan. The plan outlines a policy that aims to keep Thai rice free of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Back home, our government continues to approve field trials of...

It is planning time again. The Planning Commission of India is in the process of developing the 12th Five Year Plan, which will provide direction to the country for the next five years starting in 2012. The news is that this time,...

When the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) expert group members met on Wednesday, April 27th, to discuss Bt brinjal, they were shocked to see Greenpeace activists standing right next to their meeting room with a "We Say No...

Anna Hazare’s fight for the Jan Lokpal bill was supported by the entire country. Even then, the government took four days to concede to his demands. Thanks to the movement we know what the Jan Lokpal bill is and what it could have been...

अगर हम एक तरफ जनवरी 2011 में हुए बजट पूर्व परामर्श और ग्रीनपीस की जीवित माटी अभियान के लगातार प्रयासों के नतीजों पर नज़र डालें तो इनसे बदलाव की एक सार्थक पहल साफ दिखायी दे रही है। हालांकि अभी लम्‍बा सफर बाकी है। इस बार बजट सत्र में...

Finally, there is attention on soils. The Finance Minister tried to give it some importance during his budget speech. A day after the budget speech, a few concerned parliamentarians quizzed the Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar,...

Indiscriminate use of chemi cal fertilizers over several decades has been sucking life out of Indian soils, and thereby putting the country’s food security at stake. But the government has continued to mindlessly promote chemical...

निर्देशिका   अनुषा   रिजवी   के साथ कुछ पल जानी मानी फिल्‍म निर्देशिका अनुषा रिजवी ने पीपली लाइव बनाने के दौरान एक लम्‍बा समय खेत खलिहानों में बिताया। इस बीच उन्‍हें किसानों के सुख-दुख को बहुत करीब से देखने और उनकी...

© Karan Vaid/Greenpeace “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edmund Burke (1729-1797); Statesman, Author, Philosopher. On 8th of...

Are you drinking RO (Reverse Osmosis) water? Are you using a sanitiser to clean your hands? Are you boiling your veggies to remove pesticides? Are you using a disinfectant to mop your floor? If the answer is yes, then I...

India is a nation which has long been known for people’s movements and Jantar Mantar in Delhi has been one of those symbolic places for people around the country to join hands and demand “their right” or “what is right.” These...

Shockwaves are being felt across the world's wheat markets following the first-ever discovery of unauthorised genetically engineered wheat growing on a US farm – a development that gives further proof that GE crops cannot be...

Greenpeace volunteers protest outside the Parliament in 2011 against the same BRAI bill. © Greenpeace / Sudhanshu Malhotra The list of opposition is only going to get longer. I have a question to ask off our Minister of Science...

Imagine a democratic government adopting legislation that would instruct its own Agriculture Department ‘to ignore any judicial rulings that block the planting of crops that the court determines to be illegal’ (according to Senator...

Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner with the message ‘Say NO to GM, YES to Food Security’, along with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s picture, at the FCI godown in Delhi. “So is there any scientific evidence on the negative...

Hunger and malnutrition is an issue that governments around the world are grappling with and its manifestations can be felt more severely in the developing and under-developed nations. India is no different in this regard; we stand way...

Monsanto's Bt corn is the new Bt brinjal. No, it is not up for approval to be authorised for the market. Yet it has reached the stage of large-scale open field trials at six locations across the country from early 2010 until late 2012.

The last three months have been eventful in our struggle to keep our food and farming free from genetically modified (GM) crops. Having stopped Bt brinjal from reaching our farms and our plates the challenge was about stopping the open...

Understanding the history of GM crops in India, why the BRAI (The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India) Bill fails and its current status and petition. Various organisations including Greenpeace India launched a...

Agendas, of course, are immune from science or to facts A protest on August 8, 2013 in Delhi against the BRAI bill and Monsanto. © Karan Vaid/Greenpeace The final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert...

Photo © Deb Kumar Chattopadhyay I recently heard about Greenpeace India's campaign against Genetically Modified (GM) food and decided to participate. I had researched GM foods earlier as well and I knew how bad it was for our...

In March, US President Barack Obama signed the HR 933 continuing resolution -- popularly called 'Monsanto Protection Act'—that effectively divests the federal courts of their constitutional power to stop the planting or sale of...

The controversial Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 22, 2013 by Mr Jaipal Reddy, Minister, Science and Technology. If passed, the BRAI bill which primarily promotes...

The volunteers at the Ministry of Agriculture It was a hot summer morning in Delhi when we got to know about the results of a nation-wide online survey conducted by Greenpeace, where 97% of the people said NO TO GM FOOD.  The...

A village house in the desert district of Barmer, Rajasthan.  Photo: © Bipasha Majumder It was a chilly winter day and we were in a village close to the Pakistan border in the desert district of Barmer, Rajasthan. After a hectic...