South Asia spans countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and their neighbors. This archive gathers progress stories from the region — covering public health, education, climate adaptation, economic inclusion, and more.
Nepal’s Constitutional Court has issued a stay on the laws that require community forest user groups to pay taxes to the local, provincial, and federal governments.
Community forest user groups manage about 34% of Nepal’s forested area under a participatory conservation model that has been praised for increasing forest cover and empowering local communities.
Bhutan’s snow leopard population has climbed to 134 cats, up from 96 in the previous national survey — a 39.5% jump for a species the IUCN still lists as vulnerable. Researchers confirmed the count using camera traps scattered across high-altitude terrain, identifying individuals by the unique rosette patterns on their coats. Much of the credit goes to Bhutan’s deep commitment to conservation: its constitution requires that at least 60% of the country stay forested forever, and protected areas now cover more than half its land. With fewer than 8,000 snow leopards thought to remain across 12 countries, Bhutan’s quiet success offers a hopeful blueprint for what’s possible when legal protection, intact habitat, and political will come together.
Bengal tigers are quietly reclaiming ground in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest — and the prey recovery driving that rebound is just as striking. Spotted deer, which make up roughly 79% of tigers’ diet here, have grown to more than 141,000, while protected land has more than doubled to cover 52% of Bangladesh’s share of the forest. Community response teams have helped eliminate human-tiger conflict incidents for five years, treating local people as active partners. Poaching pressure remains real, though, and long-term survival will depend on how the forest holds up against rising seas and intensifying storms.
Bangladesh’s push to manufacture lithium-ion batteries domestically is a meaningful step toward owning its clean energy future, not just participating in it. The new battery plant is designed to supply the core component for local electric vehicle assembly — a deliberate strategy to build an entire EV industry from the inside out. The real caveat: with fossil fuels dominating Bangladesh’s electricity grid, switching to EVs risks shifting emissions upstream rather than eliminating them. Still, research shows that EVs get cleaner automatically as grids improve — making early investment a bet worth placing.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully landed its Vikram lander in the rough terrain of the Moon’s south pole, making India the first country to safely touch down in this unexplored region of the lunar surface.
India’s emissions intensity dropped 33% between 2005 and 2019, meaning the country now produces far less greenhouse gas for every dollar of economic output. Even better, the pace is picking up: annual reductions doubled to 3% per year in the most recent stretch measured, the fastest on record. That’s happening while the economy keeps growing, driven by a rapid build-out of solar and wind, expanding forest cover, and fresh investment in green hydrogen. For a country of 1.4 billion people, breaking the old link between prosperity and pollution is exactly the kind of shift the world needs to see — proof that climate progress and development can move together, not in opposition.
“We’re not only returning objects; we’re also embarking on a period of closer cooperation with Indonesia and Sri Lanka in areas like collection research, presentation, and exchanges between museums,” said Dutch Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu.
Justice Shrestha’s interim order will allow same-sex couples and other LGBTQ+ couples to legally register their marriages immediately, while the government prepares legislation to amend the civil code and formally legalize same-sex marriage.
The Serum Institute of India and Path successfully tested an effective and affordable vaccine for meningitis, a disease that claims the lives of an estimated 250,000 people each year.
India just hit pause on new coal. The country’s Ministry of Power won’t consider new coal-fired power plant proposals for at least five years, opening the door for renewables to take on more of the load. India already ranks fourth globally for installed wind and solar capacity, and the updated plan aims to push non-fossil sources to 57% of the energy mix by 2027. To handle the swings of sun and wind, planners are pairing the buildout with 51.5GW of battery storage by 2030. For the world’s third-largest emitter, a pause like this is more than a planning tweak — it’s a signal that the future of electricity for 1.4 billion people is being written in renewables.
