In 1973, Raini village of Chamoli district faced a threat from loggers who wanted to cut their forest. Gaura Devi and 27 other women decided to tackle the loggers. They confronted and challenged the men to shoot her instead of cutting down the trees and they described the forest as "Vandevta" (God of Jungle) and her maika (mother's house). Finally, the women of Raini managed to halt the work of loggers by hugging the trees despite the abuse and threats of the armed loggers. The movement is an inspiration to many environmental movements across the world and is famously known as the ‘Chipko movement’. Since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000, developmental projects in the Himalayas are not only robbing Raini villagers of the forest that they once saved, but also threatening their village's existence by forcing them to be displaced. Duka Devi, one of the many women of the Chipko movement, said, “I don't want to leave my village, my soil. But the circumstances are forcing me to leave. My heart doesn't want to let go. Nothing can replace my village.”

Sarveshwar Prasad’s family is among the very few people in his village in northern India’s Uttarakhand state who have not migrated away out of fear of leopards. These wild cats are often seen wandering in residential areas in the state’s Pauri Garhwal district and sometimes mauling humans, even to death. Called Noliyo and situated in the Garhwal Himalayas, the village now looks deserted, even as the remaining few families are also planning to move out. The human-wildlife conflict caries on amid what appears to be the government’s neglect of the residents’ plight.

Kamal Masih, a lawyer practising in a region near India’s border with Pakistan, has represented many victims of discrimination and violence against Dalit Christians in Punjab state. However, Hindu nationalists claim that Christians seek to convert Dalits by offering monetary benefits. Masih counters that claim saying that discrimination against and oppression on Dalits rise and they lose their rights to affirmative action if they convert to Christianity. The Christians Masih has represented are among the country’s 24 million Christians, about 60 percent of whom are from Dalit backgrounds.

Every winter, a thick blanket of smog engulfs Delhi and the National Capital Region as farmers in the states of Punjab and Haryana burn millions of tonnes of paddy stubble to clear their farms for the sowing of wheat. When the skies over Delhi began to fill with smoke in October 2020, we began tracing the smog from Punjab to Delhi while also looking at efforts being made to deal with the crisis. We wanted to find out if the farmers could be blamed for it, or was it due to the government’s failure to offer an alternative to stubble burning?

Mohammed Arif, a resident of Khori Gaon village in the northern state of Haryana, awaits the demolition of his house, just as more than 100,000 other area residents do after the Supreme Court of India’s ruling that the village sits 'illegally' on a forest land.

Bollywood makes films about them and people desperately await medals when they go for international games, but India’s athletes seemingly receive little help. At least that’s what we sensed when we met with a group of runners in Delhi, some of whom had represented India. Working evenings and nights to meet their basic needs, they have kept their dreams and determination alive, just so that someday they would win an Olympic medal. We met them while they were practising in a park in Delhi, India’s capital, in a recent morning. But here’s what we witnessed and captured on camera.

Dams are one of the most bizarre structures built by men. It requires a huge workforce, costs billions and takes years of planning. There are more than 50,000 large dams worldwide. India is one of the most active dam-constructing countries. From just nearly 300 dams around 1947, we built more than 5000 dams by 2020. We built these structures with the aim of taming nature. But the aftermath takes a heavy toll on the environment and the people. So the question is if building dams is still relevant?

Video by Abhishek Yadav and Richard Kujur Text by Surabhi Singh The Indian parliament passed three agriculture reform bills with a “voice vote” in September. While the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government claimed that the passage of the bills was a watershed moment for the agriculture sector, farmers – especially in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana – held massive protests. StoriesAsia spoke to farmers in Haryana about why they were opposing the laws. A video report on those conversations is above.