Industrial effluents and sewage water are being diverted to the river Ganga by the cities and towns through which it passes. Nestled on the banks of Ganga, Kanpur, a highly urbanized and industrial city is polluting it most. Apart from the Government of India’s recently constituted National Ganga River Basin Authority, civil societies and NGOs too are putting rigorous efforts to make Ganga pollution free. Though the city has several big and small industries, the leather industries located in Jajmau, the oldest part of the city add to the problem of pollution in the river to a large extent.
This article in Economic and Political Weekly is a review of the edited book Handbook of Climate Change and India: Development, Politics and Governance by Navroz Dubash.
Farmers in Maharashtra now receive automatic SMSes giving them weather information and advice about irrigation, pest control, fertiliser dosage etc, thanks to some amazing software developed by WOTR (Watershed Organisation Trust).
Recognizing the national and global imperatives for regenerating natural resources and conserving ecosystems, the Ministry of Rural Development requested UNDP to examine the environmental implications of its schemes and assess the potential of these schemes to deliver green results.
Communities have across diverse ecological and sociopolitical contexts devised myriad ways over time to harvest and manage water in order to sustain their lives and practise agriculture.
This paper in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) by Patrik Oskarsson deals with the bauxite (aluminium) project which is very similar to the Vedanta project in Odisha and is coming up in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.
This paper by Vandana Asthana in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the lived experiences of displaced women based on the empirical findings of research that looks at women displaced by the construction of the Tehri Dam and their relocation elsewhere.
This paper by Navdeep Mathur questions whether the official narrative that presents Ahmedabad as a pioneer in urban transformation in India engages with the experiences of the urban poor in Ahmedabad by examining processes around the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project.
This document by Ministry of Urban Development is a toolkit for solid waste management, which is developed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. It is prepared with a motive to provide comprehensive knowledge on solid waste management for municipal managers when they implement projects.
Low external input and sustainable agriculture (LEISA) India has come up with a collection of alternative ways of combating desertification in the fragile region of the country in its recent issue. The articles are success stories of such intiatives by farmers and NGOs.
This paper in Indian Journal of Public Health sheds light on the specific impact of arsenic on health of children based on the review of literature on the subject.
Sand is a resource whose economic value belies the crucial role it plays in our lives. The process of development in India has so far not taken into account the environmental and social consequences of indiscriminate sand mining.
The sprawling economic development and constant consumption of land resources in an unsustainable manner has come with a big price- degradation of land. The major causes for this can be attributed to industrial pollution, over grazing by animals, deforestation and careless management of forests and it rich and diverse resources and excessive mining. The impact is severe on ecologically fragile and dryland areas which often drives small farmers out from agriculture.
Have you wondered what happens to all the garbage that your home disowns every morning ? Where does all the stuff that you throw away go ? Where does it end ? Does your neighbourhood portray its own 'dirty picture'? Can this 'trashy' image be altered ?
Travel along the litter route, measure the waste you produce and along with some tips and tricks , check out our ‘waste-o-meter’ to find a few answers to this conundrum !