Articles by Hema Vijay

Hema Vijay is a journalist from Chennai with over 20 years of experience in media. She writes on sustainability issues and solutions, urban farming, health, heritage and assistive technology among other topics.

Many of us city folks are growing veggies on our terraces and balconies, greening our patch of concrete, staying as eco-positive as we can, but wait a moment… Are we really being gentle on the earth, all the way? Where did it come from – the red soil and the river sand that we use to grow our potted plants? The fact is, the soil and sand would have been mined or smuggled out from a rice field, river bed, forest or countryside, leaving them that much depleted. We do know that sand mining from river beds devastates not just…

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