Since 2012, India’s apex wildlife body has recommended shrinking or erasing 35 protected areas for mining, infrastructure, tourism & urban expansion. Not one was sent to #SupremeCourt despite its orders Prakriti Srivastava & @prernabindra Link 👇

Humanity is speeding towards a climate catastrophe. That’s the stark warning from the latest @UNEP report. Every fraction of a degree of warming will cost lives, deepen inequalities & push ecosystems closer to irreversible damage. We must raise ambition, accelerate #ClimateAction & fight for humanity. NOW. unep.org/resources/limiting-…

This isn’t just an anthem. This is pure soul. Deaf children. Silent voices. Yet every gesture screams louder than any song: “Jana Gana Mana…” No sound. Only pure, unbreakable love for the nation. Patriotism has no language. Patriotism has no barriers. This silent national anthem gave an entire country goosebumps. To every Indian ,especially the ones who feel the tricolour in their heart without needing to hear a single note: Happy Independence Day. Jai Hind. 🇮🇳 #IndependenceDay

I binge-watched Operation Safed Sagar over the weekend. And I want to say thank you to everyone who had a hand in making this series & to Netflix for commissioning it. For many reasons… Because, despite some reviewers cribbing about inconsistent CGI & performances that could have been better, I found the actors competent and credible. More importantly, I was moved and inspired by the story & the emotions underlying it. Because I wish that, when I was growing up, we had had more films like this, recording the feats of our armed forces in the many conflicts we have experienced, in a gritty and convincingly realistic manner. Instead, we grew up on a diet of Hollywood war movies which, despite often taking enormous liberties with historical accuracy, helped build American pride & self-belief while we watched as envious bystanders. Because, even though I knew a great amount about the courage of soldiers like Vikram Batra and the role of the Bofors gun in Kargil, I confess I knew far too little about the critical role played by the Indian Air Force. And I certainly didn’t know that, apart from extraordinary valour, Operation Safed Sagar showcased the ingenuity & rapid improvisation that we now celebrate as a hallmark of Indian innovation. The IAF acquired handheld GPS receivers, put them into MiGs & used them to calculate release points for ordinary “dumb” bombs. They conducted hurried trials, initially got disappointing results, refined the technique within a handful of sorties & took it into combat almost immediately. The Mirage story, dealt with more briefly in the series, was equally remarkable. The IAF had Mirage 2000s, Israeli Litening laser-designation pods and Paveway II guidance kits, but had not yet turned that combination into an established combat capability. When a required component could not be obtained from abroad due to the 1998 sanctions, IAF technicians displayed what I call ‘denial-driven innovation’ & engineered the solution themselves! So at a time when we are debating whether human intelligence will increasingly become a slave to machine intelligence, it’s incredibly valuable to be reminded that even in battle, where decisions are made in seconds & lives depend upon them, it’s ultimately the humans behind the machines who make the difference. I hope as many people as possible watch this series. Because when the men and women of our armed forces know that we know their stories & remember their sacrifices, they also know that their courage will not be forgotten. The heroes of Operation Safed Sagar are my #MondayMotivation. With a special salute to Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja. 🇮🇳