Jal, Jangal, Jameen: Outlook's Coverage Of Land, Environment, And Survival

Living in the time of the climate crisis, we are witnessing the effects scientists predicted years ago play out: rising sea levels, melting glaciers, unseasonal rainfall, unprecedented heatwaves. The planet is heating up. Global temperatures are expected to rise in the coming decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. The climate crisis is a crisis of inequality. It affects the most vulnerable disproportionately; robbing them of their livelihoods, displacing them from their homes. A wave of mass migration has been triggered by climate change. Within India, the population of climate refugees continues to grow.

Nature keeps sending us warning signals: frequent landslides and flash floods in the fragile Himalayan region, earthquakes in sensitive zones like Bhuj and Joshimath where construction carries on unchecked; life-sustaining rivers like the Ganga drying up; entire species—sparrows, bees, foxes—falling silent and vanishing from the face of the earth as their natural habitats are gobbled up by the development juggernaut.

For 30 years, Outlook has tracked it all. From land rights to environmental catastrophers, to alarm bells raised by experts to policy impacts on our world.

Environmental activists like Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan continue their crusade against the extraction economy, fighting for the rights of Adivasis, farmers and the displaced. People’s movements rooted in tribal resistance galvanise to save dying trees and polluted rivers, to prevent big dams from drowning more lives, to protect crops from being ravaged, to save towns and bridges and highways from being swept away by unseasonal floods.

The fate of the planet hinges on the course human activities will take. Will the future end in flood and fury? Or will humans evolve a new way of life to save us from ourselves?

A Crisis of Inequality: The climate crisis, the most dire threat the world is facing today, has widened the divide between the haves and the have-nots

Fighting the Good Fight: Adivasis are fighting for their ancestral lands, rivers and forests, resisting giant corporations and development projects that threaten to dispossess them

The Tireless Banks of Justice: Medha Patker, the spirited crusader of the decades-old Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), holds unshaken belief in the power of people’s movements to protect the environment

Distressing Development: The town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand is sinking. Cracks have appeared on the walls of homes and on the streets. Unplanned development and the effects of climate change compound the tragedy

Catastrophic Quake: In 2001, an earthquake flattened Bhuj and also extracted a deadly toll elsewhere in Gujarat. One of India’s worst natural disasters, it exposed in detail the vulnerability of Indian urban constructions

River at Risk: The Ganga has nurtured societies and natural systems for ages. Restoring it is a necessary task that needs sustained effort

Swept Away: Cloud bursts and unprecedented rainfall triggered the Kedarnath floods, causing huge loss to lives and damaging infrastructure, posing critical questions about the current development model

The Goan Story: Climate change-induced sea level rise is set to ravage Goa’s beaches. The phenomenon has been whittling away Goa’s coastline in recent years at an alarming pace

From Ground Zero: After the tsunami overturned their lives in December 2004, survivors returned to pick up the pieces. As India’s largest relief operation began, Outlook correspondents travelled to Andaman & Nicobar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to assess its effectiveness

This article appeared as Jal, Jangal, Jameen in Outlook’s January 01, 2026, issue 30 Years of Irreverence which commemorates the magazine's 30 years of journalism. From its earliest days of irreverence to its present-day transformation, the magazine has weathered controversy, crisis, and change.