Puneet A

Howdy, Before anything else: check which version of PHP your sites run. On October 21, the PHP project released fixes for two critical vulnerabilities, and they affect any server running a PHP application, not only WordPress. You’ll find your version under Tools → Site Health → Info → Server in your WordPress admin. If you

Spanning 9 million square kilometres and covering almost a third of Africa, the Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world. Only the most adaptable animals can survive in the hostile conditions. And they do. The Sahara is just one of Africa’s many landscapes that are the subject of a new series. National Geographic’s

The first monsoon shower does more than wash the red laterite soil from the sal forests of Chhotanagpur Plateau. It also stirs what lies beneath them. Over the next few weeks, tribal communities that have long inhabited the region head into the woods at dawn. Armed with small baskets and short digging sticks, they scan

Low-pressure systems have become a buzzword during the monsoon, fuelling the impression that rainfall across India is increasingly driven by these systems rather than by monsoon winds. But the picture is more complex. The projected increase in Indian summer monsoon rainfall under a warming climate is primarily associated with rising atmospheric water vapour over the

Açaí, pronounced a-sa-ee, is often said to mean “the fruit that cries” in the language of the Tupi, an indigenous community of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, where the palm grows. The berry’s pulp is traditionally served as puree or a compote alongside local cassava-based dishes or fish. Over time, its deep purple hue has secured a

When the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) published its Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes report earlier this year, the numbers confirmed what riverine communities had suspected for decades. Migratory freshwater fish populations have dropped 81% globally since the 1970s. Nearly all (97%) of the 58 fish

The Karnataka government launched a cloud-seeding programme in September to address rainfall deficits in drought-affected parts of the state. Since the launch of the programme, worth around ₹28 crore (₹285 million), questions have been raised about the viability of cloud-seeding operations this late in the monsoon. Cloud seeding is a disputed weather modification technique that