With over 125,000 large and small dams across the world, freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened globally. Resultant fragmentation, flow alteration, and changing sediment cycling regimes have adversely influenced freshwater biodiversity, which have extinction rates five times those of terrestrial animals.

Various national and international policies currently support the growth in small hydro-power projects as it is assumed that small dams have minimal or no environmental impacts. However, recent studies question this assumption. We aim to gather and assess the broad impacts of extensive small dam development within the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot that has one of the largest densities of small dams in India.

It is well established that free-ranging cats affect the bird community structure and composition. The annual loss of bird life to cat predation has been estimated to be between 1.3-5.5 billion birds Thus, cat predation might explain part of the drastic decline in the global bird population. There has been no previous study in India on the impact of cats on bird population in India. In this study, we will examine the predation pressure of free-ranging cats on resident and migratory birds in the bird-rich city of Dehradun, located in the Himalayan foothills.

Tropical estuaries are transition zones between freshwater and marine environments; their ecosystem functioning depends critically on the timing, quality, and quantity of upstream inputs such as freshwater and sediments carried by the river. In tropical developing countries, hydropower dams drastically alter downstream flow and sediment regimes. Understanding their effects on estuarine salinity and suspended sediment concentration – two key physical parameters that influence estuarine ecosystem functioning, is important.

Historically, the Tuivang River in Manipur and its catchment has been actively managed and used by local communities, with shifting cultivation and selective logging being common practices. Recent years has seen a drastic reduction in both these practices, and an increase in mechanized clear-felling of large tracts of forests. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this clear-felling on steep slopes has resulted in increased soil erosion and sediment loads in rivers.

Tree-based restoration has gained widespread popularity as a solution to limit global warming. Global tree-based restoration projects and research on carbon sequestration opportunities disproportionately identify open natural ecosystems (ONEs) comprising grasslands, savannas and woodlands for afforestation. In India, around 4.3 million hectares of these ecosystems have been identified as potential carbon sinks via afforestation. Open natural ecosystems harbour high biodiversity and the livelihoods of pastoralist communities.