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'Chennai is not water-starved any more'

Friday, June 10, 2016
|
Environment
|
By: 
P V Durga
Dr Raghavan at the Rain Centre.

It's not without reason that the Third World War is predicted to be triggered by water scarcity. The numbers themselves give us enough reason to be worried- by 2025, 60 per cent of India is expected to be living in towns and cities. Bore wells are getting deeper, urban areas brimming with population, and some already suffer from water shortage. However, success stories of humble organisations like the Rain Centre in Chennai let the results speak for themselves, and keep hope alive. Chennai owes the success of its rainwater harvesting to Dr. Raghavan, and the work done through his Rain Center. 

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'Uniqueness value of forest is irreplaceable'

Wednesday, October 2, 2019
|
Environment
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk
Valuation of ecosystem is gaining ground.

A recent study by IIFM found that 10 select tiger reserves of the country provide economic benefits worth Rs 5.96 trillion. Globally, efforts are being made to assess the benefits of conservation on economy and various methods and formulas have been devised to evaluate these aspects. Critics, however, believe that ecosystem valuation can lead to commodification of nature and its sale to the highest bidder. We talk to Dr Madhu Verma, lead researcher of IIFM study and an expert in field of ecosystem valuation.

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'हमने पानी का स्वभाव ही बदल दिया'

Monday, January 25, 2016
|
Environment
|
By: 
Vandana Gupta
वाराणसी में गंगा नदी. स्त्रोत: इंडिया वाटर पोर्टल

नदी का विज्ञानं क्या है और बढ़ते जल प्रदूषण , बाढ़ और सूखे के संदर्भ में यह कहाँ बैठता है? बता रहें हैं प्रसिद्ध पर्यावरणविद् और लेखक अनुपम मिश्र। यह व्यख्यान उन्होंने 28 नवंबर, 2015 को नई दिल्ली में जल नीति विशेषज्ञ स्व: रामास्वामी आर अय्यर की स्मृति में दिया । ‘सबको पानी’ के नारों से ले कर बड़ी वाटर वर्क्स की योजनाओं तक, अनुपम जी पानी से जुड़े सभी सामाजिक और राजनीतिक आयामों को छूते हुए नदी के अविरल स्वभाव को चित्रित करते हैं 

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12% of India prone to landslides, 264 killed in 2019

Sunday, October 18, 2020
|
Environment
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
Landslide during Uttarakhand disaster 2013. Diariocritico de Venezuela/Flickr

Besides heavy rainfall, human activities such as construction of roads, buildings and railways, mining and quarrying, and hydropower projects damage hilly slopes and impact natural drainage by removing soil and vegetation, loosening soil and gravel and making the hills more susceptible to landslides. In India, 420,000 sq km, or 12.6% of the total land, is landslide prone. Last year, 264 people died in landslides and over 65% of these fatalities happened in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats

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A Generation in Peril. How Climate Crisis is Impacting Childhood

Monday, January 11, 2021
|
Environment - Governance - Grassroots
|
By: 
Satyaki Baidya

The impact of climate crisis on people across the world is highly disproportionate but no other group is as vulnerable as children in low income families of developing countries. Children are not emotionally and physically capable of understanding the dangers during extreme weather events and are dependent on adults for their survival. They are more susceptible to water and vector borne diseases, malnutrition and they are forced into labour due to economic challenges induced by climate crisis. 

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A Rosetta Stone to environmental law

Friday, October 28, 2016
|
Environment - Law
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk
Diversion of forest land is one of the biggest concerns for villagers dependent on forests.

This document is a valuable resource that comprises important legal changes and events of last three years with reference to previous laws. Written by well known practitioner Kanchi Kohli, the e-book lists down steps that can be taken to secure people’s rights over land, forests, water and biodiversity. And all this is explained through instances where common men and women explore the nitty gritties of environmental laws. So, we have Sarita tai worried about construction of railway line through a forest and Kavita who is intrigued by a company official asking for her village land to do compensatory afforestation for a distant project 

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Anupam Mishra: The Gandhian I know

Tuesday, December 27, 2016
|
Environment
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
Image Source: TED talks

Going by his fame, I had imagined somebody with people running around him, at least a couple of computers on display and cell phones caroling frequently. But here was a man working without a cellphone or a computer, surrounded by letters people wrote to him. A couple of wooden almirahs adorned with old postcards and images of famous personalities from Gandhi ji to Sunita Narain, stood in his room. Gandhi Marg, the bi-monthly periodical Anupam ji brought out, was another extension of his personality. It does exceptionally well to make Gandhian philosophy relevant for today’s world. 

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Biodiversity in danger, is anyone listening?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
|
Environment
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil

August 12, 2011: The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) decides to take legal action against multinational seed firm Monsanto for accessing local varieties of eggplant and using it to develop genetically modified bt brinjal. Though the action may appear 

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Birds across India are going down, thanks to cities

Sunday, April 12, 2020
|
Environment
|
By: 
Shreeti Shubham
Peacock is one bird species which is increasing. Source: Shiv's fotografia/Wikimedia Commons

Birds are declining significantly with 52 percent of species showing clear declines over the past decades, said a new report State of India’s birds 2020. The report analysed 867 bird species from over 10 million observations collected by over 15,500 birdwatchers across the country. It also identified 101 species with high conservation needs. The take-home message is that urbanisation is the biggest culprit behind avian decline. Most of our common birds like house sparrows and bulbuls are declining

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Cashing in on the climate change debate

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
|
Environment
|
By: 
Soumya Dutta

At the confluence of Subarnarekha river in Orissa, the average fish catch has fallen by 20-30 per cent over the past few years while input cost to run a power boat and maintain a good net has risen. In 2008 winter, standing crops in 16 districts in Rajasthan were damaged

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Censuring the collapse

Saturday, May 12, 2012
|
Environment
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk

Image 1: More  than  30  bulldozers  and  100  JCBs  ply incessantly on a hill in Murbad tehsil of Maharashtra, excavating a huge foundation and simultaneously levelling the land to build a dam for which forest clearance has not been sanctioned yet. The project 

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Chennai gets another chance at waste management

Monday, July 11, 2016
|
Environment
|
By: 
P V Durga
A scene outside the ever-crowded Kottur Market in Chennai. Source: India Water Portal

The Chennai floods of December 2015 had little to do with nature’s fury and more about city’s flawed urban planning and decades of improper garbage management. Chennai generates between 4,500- 4,800 tonnes of waste every day, and about 1.8 million tonnes a year. However, the city seems to be learning its lessons pretty quickly, and the effort of some responsible citizens has culminated into the Plastic Waste Rules 2016, and the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. These rules have, for the first time, recognised the informal sector as a big player in waste management. 

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Dead end for eco tourism

Monday, June 20, 2011
|
Environment
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk

There is a strong perception that the crisis of policy implementation runs deep across all the levels of governance from the Union to the State and further to the local government level. This perception is reinforced in the recent findings of the Comptroller and Auditor 

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Deceived: The water carriers of Kangra

Wednesday, December 24, 2014
|
Environment - Grassroots
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
The distance between community and its resource leads to disaster in the long run.

Man has always been on quest of building new things. Even when there were no big machines and qualified engineers, the world had expert builders who shaped the earth into various forms to meet needs of the society. Kuhls of Himachal Pradesh are one such example of engineering brilliance. Kuhl is name given to a channel which carries glacial melt through gravity from nearby streams to the fields thus making irrigation possible even on steep hills. Kangra valley has the most extensive network of kuhls dating as far back as 17th century.

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Disturbing placid waters of north east

Tuesday, September 13, 2011
|
Environment
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk

North East India has long been ignored by policy makers who usually blame the difficult terrain for non-delivery of essential services. However, for last few years, both the bureaucrats as well as corporates are making a beeline to the region offering development.

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Drinking from the stream of traditional knowledge

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
|
Environment - Grassroots
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
Several beris like these provide sweet water to villagers of Jaisalmer district. Source: GOI Monitor

Ghaziram's family has been living at Ekalpaar village of Jaisalmer district for ages but managed to build a pucca house only recently. Besides rearing livestock, he owns 50 bigha of agricultural land which earned him Rs 2 lakh last year.

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Faith in the forest: How sacred groves function

Wednesday, August 15, 2018
|
Environment
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
Such temples dedicated to local deities are spread all over pasture, forest lands of south Rajasthan.

With certain rules around extraction of resources, including ban on cutting of trees, these sacred groves contribute significantly to wildlife protection, soil conservation, groundwater recharge, and as a good source of herbs, fruits and other economic resources to local people. But practices around these spaces differ with location and may not always abide by the concept of unaltered, pristine state of forests. The contours tend to respond to the socio-cultural changes around them.

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Farming under the changing skies

Thursday, September 20, 2012
|
Agriculture - Environment
|
By: 
GOI Monitor Desk

Keshari Sahu is a happy farmer. When scanty and irregular rainfall resulted in heavy damage to the Kharif paddy crop at his village in Balangir district of Odisha last year, he decided to grow Gurjee millet on his three acre farm instead of cotton.

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Forest in my soul

Saturday, November 7, 2015
|
Environment
|
By: 
Manu Moudgil
The film follows the Kondhs through their lives and engagements with the forest. Source: Top Quark Films

If you frequent villages, ‘Jal, jungle, zamin’ is the commonest refrain you hear. While we city dwellers are acquainted to land and water, forest often remains a distant resource for us. But in many places of the world, there are people who are one with the forests. India is home to many such tribes who treat trees and shrubs as their extended family. The film, “I cannot give you my forest’, gives a glimpse of such a tribe, the Kondhs of Odisha. Made to the rhythm of a folk song, ‘Tinba Dumbro Puyu’ (Come, my pristine flower), the film starts and ends with visuals of insects, small in size yet big contributors to the whole ecosystem.

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From field to CFL , how biomass energy is lighting up India

Thursday, December 18, 2014
|
Environment - Grassroots
|
By: 
Shanmuga Priya T
Biomass resource can overcome energy deficit. Source: Ramjar/WikimediaCommons

Around a thousand families of Thalangi tribal hamlet in Coimbatore district received free television sets from the Tamil Nadu government in 2006. But these were of no use as the houses had no electricity supply. Kerosene was the main source of lighting. Today, it is interesting to see how the hamlet has met all its energy needs and also attained complete sanitation through a biodigester. Though biodigesters have conventionally been used to generate biogas for cooking fuel, examples are cropping up across India to use the same gas for electricity generation, especially in far flung areas.

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