The Kathmandu reaches of the Bagmati River are widely characterised as severely degraded. This article explores the rhetorical life and death of the concept of a 'Bagmati civilisation': a particular configuration of history, cultural identity and river ecology espoused by a prominent Nepali river restorationist.

Dhole (Cuon alpinus), a pack-hunting canid, is a coursing predator of the Asian jungles. It preys on wild ungulates such as Sambar and Wild Pig and also on livestock when available. The propensity of Dholes to attack livestock, however, had resulted in the people of Bhutan nearly eradicating Dholes in 1970s by poisoning their kills.

The relationship between climate change and cities is complex. City-based activities contribute significant amounts of greenhouse gases and, simultaneously, are often more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Dhaka is now the world's eighth largest city and a significant proportion of Bangladesh's greenhouse gases are generated there although, relative to total emissions worldwide, the contribution is negligible.

India leads the world with largest number of diabetic subjects earning the dubious distinction of being termed the “diabetes capital of the world”. According to the Diabetes Atlas 2006 published by the International Diabetes Federation, the number of people with diabetes in India currently around 40.9 million is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025 unless urgent preventive steps are taken.

Previous studies have found that atmospheric brown clouds partially offset the warming effects of greenhouse gases. This finding suggests a tradeoff between the impacts of reducing emissions of aerosols and greenhouse gases.

In the early 1980s, K. C. Saha from the School of Tropical Medicine in Kolkata attributed skin lesions in West Bengal, India, to exposure to arsenic in groundwater pumped from shallow tube wells. Despite these findings, millions of tube wells have been
installed across the Bengal Basin, the geological formation that includes West Bengal and Bangladesh, and across river floodplains and deltas in southern Asia.

Poor people of the world depend on rice, and rice is in short supply