On a journey to the little-known Northeast region of India, we discover “a rare creature”: the “Forest Man of India”. Nearly every day for almost 40 years now, Jadav Payeng, a local farmer, has risen before dawn to cross the river on his boat, and begins the daily two-mile journey to his vegetable farm and his life’s mission: reviving the ecosystem here.

When Payeng was a boy, the river island of Majuli was attached to the mainland. Over the past several decades, erosion (侵蚀) from the powerful river waters of the Brahmaputra has gradually cut it off from the mainland. “Earlier, this was all sand. No trees, no grass—nothing was here.” Today fields of tall grasses stretch into the distance. Along with bright green plains dotted with cows, cotton trees stand straight in rows as far as the eye can see.

Payeng set about planting here in 1979, after unexpectedly seeing some dead snakes piled on the sand in the Indian sun. “When I saw it, I thought even we humans will have to die this way in the heat. It struck me,” he said. Payeng sought no permission to plant the forest. He just grew it, carrying on his tribe’s tradition of honoring nature.

The dense forest now covers an area of more than 1,300 acres. He is delighted that wild elephants cross the shallow river waters to walk around in his forest. Besides elephants, the home is filled with deer, monkeys, tigers and a wide variety of birds. “It’s not as if I did it alone,” says the self-styled naturalist. “You plant one or two trees, and they have to seed. And once they seed, the wind knows how to plant them, the birds here know how to sow them, cows know, elephants know, even the Brahmaputra River knows. The entire ecosystem knows.”

Payeng has single-handedly changed the landscape. When asked how he has sustained his passion, Payeng strikes a respectful tone. “Nature gives me inspiration. It gives me power. As long as it survives, I survive.”

Most hospitals don’t have a canal to collect rainwater. That’s one of the unusual features that earned a major architecture honor — the 2021 RIBA International Prize — for Friendship Hospital, an 80-bed rural community hospital in Bangladesh.

The hospital uses an innovative canal system to collect extra rainwater and store it so that it can be used later. The prize’s jury felt that the hospital’s canal worked well to respond to the local environment’s frequent rains.

Judges noted the hospital was built using local low-cost building materials! “It is a demonstration of how beautiful architecture can be achieved through good design when working with a relatively modest budget.” Decq wrote. The Royal Institute of British Architects awards the prize every two years to a building that “exemplifies design excellence and architectural ambition and delivers meaningful social impact.”

Designed by Bangladeshi architect Kashef and completed in 2018, the hospital is run by the nonprofit group Friendship, which works with communities in rural Bangladesh to respond to issues such as lack of access to vital services and climate change.

Friendship Hospital was located in the southern region of Bangladesh. Its relationship with rainwater was a key element in the prize. Its major design feature is a canal that goes along the length of the hospital, separating the outpatient building from the building for inpatient services. The canal collects rainwater from the site, which is then stored in a tank so that it can be used by the hospital.

Architect Chowdhury hopes the award will inspire people to commit to architecture that cares for humans and nature.

Lord Ashcroft, one of the Conservatives’ biggest donors, has issued an attack on Norway for its cruel practice of commercial whaling.

“Norway often kills more whales than Japan and Iceland combined. And it’s no less cruel than in the past,” the peer wrote before the opening of the Norwegian whaling season this week.

Norway increased its fixed maximum from 999 in 2018 and has authorized the killing of 1,278 whales this year. Killing the animals, often with gun powder, was similar to inhumane traditions such as human slavery or boy chimney sweeps. “Now is the time for Norway to recognize that commercial whaling is cruel, outdated and unnecessary—and must be stopped.”

Last year Japan authorized whaling after years of carrying it out in the name of scientific research. Norway, like Iceland, refused to recognize the 1986 international act and restarted whaling in 1993. It says there are 100,000 whales in its waters.

Greenpeace Norway has appealed to its government to pay attention to the opposition “as well as the lack of a local market for the products”. It said, “Whaling is only maintained for narrow political reasons and should be phased out.”

A Norwegian government spokesman said, “The whales are harvested in a sustainable manner based on the best available scientific advice. The availability of whale products in Norway is wholly consumer-driven and international trade in whale products is regulated by and according to relevant international framework.”

It is used for pet food and to feed animals in fur farms or is exported to Japan and Iceland. Pippa Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, said that she ate smoked whale in Norway, comparing it to smoked salmon. Peta, the animal rights group, condemned her for being “invisible to the debate about Norway’s mass murder.”

Lord Ashcroft sent researchers to Norway to investigate and said four ships were seen preparing for “the killing activity.” “The biggest concentration of ships is in the Lofoten Islands, which are popular with tourists,” he wrote.