Chicu Lokgariwar

Chicu Lokgariwar
Trash out: People get together to clean the Himalayas
The Himalayan Cleanup where people collected and sorted trash threw up useful information on the main culprits behind trash piles in the Himalayas.
Posted on 06 Aug, 2018 10:50 AM

My first trek in the Himalayas was a transcendental experience. Even a decade after, I remember the intense beauty of every vignette I came across. That’s why I was excited about the Himalayan Cleanup, held on May 26 this year.

Volunteers sort plastic trash during the cleanup. (Pic courtesy: Zero Waste Himalaya)
Green toilet in my backyard
Ecological sanitation toilets are the best option to deal with mounting sewage burden in India.
Posted on 18 Jun, 2018 03:39 PM

Untreated sewage is the biggest source of water pollution in India with around 70 percent of the raw sewage generated in urban areas entering lakes, rivers, seas and underground aquifers.

Chicu with a pan used in ecosan toilet. (Photo courtesy: Chicu Lokgariwar)
India Unshackled: A book discussion
The editor of a new book that lays out alternative futures for India discusses India, democracy and development with a noted journalist. Posted on 30 Apr, 2018 03:43 PM

Alternative Futures: India Unshackled is a new book that dares to imagine what India could be.

Joy (L) and Pema (R) in discussion.
What it means to be water rich
Next Diwali, you will have the option of buying a bottle of water for Rs 65 lakh. Here are some other ways you can spend that money.
Posted on 17 Oct, 2017 06:16 AM

I grew up in the Konkan, drinking water from a well that was filled by rainwater, filtered through the area's laterite aquifers and “fortified” by the leaves shed by the jackfruit tree above it. And then I moved to Pune, where I came across a cloudy, salty, heavy liquid that passed for water.

One bottle of water or 65 open wells? That's the Rs 65 lakh question!
Let’s buck up and deal with deluge
Massive floods have made a comeback this year. What can we do to be better prepared for this new normal?
Posted on 12 Sep, 2017 06:00 AM

It was supposed to be a normal monsoon as Indian Meteorological Department had predicted. But barring the central plateau, the rest of India may be forgiven for thinking that the Biblical deluge has come a second time.

Members of the national disaster response force evacuate residents of a flooded village in Bihar. (Source: NDRF)
Tel Aviv, we are looking for water
Wondering why India went to Israel for water? Here’s the reason and why we should be worried.
Posted on 09 Sep, 2017 08:23 PM

After a gap of 67 years, the Indian Prime Minister made an official visit to Israel this year.

The prime ministers of the two countries, Netanyahu and Modi at Olga beach to attend a demonstration of Israeli mobile water desalination technology. 06/07/2017 Photographer- Kobi Gideon/ GPO
Catch them young
An initiative in Uttarakhand aims to inculcate knowledge of water management in school children.
Posted on 04 Sep, 2017 10:29 PM

The children of Shri Ram Vidya Mandir in Dotiyal in Almora district of Uttarakhand were hushed as they entered the hall. Within 15 minutes, they were all giggling in anticipation of the fun of learning something new. This is one of the schools where students are taught the basics of hydrogeology and water quality.

Children gather around Ashvath Singh as he demonstrates hydrogeology.
Seven decades of water woes
While large projects offered more bang for India's buck at the time of independence, the idea hasn't evolved over time affecting the sustainability of natural resources.
Posted on 15 Aug, 2017 06:34 PM

In the early half of the last century, two people in love with each other worked in their own separate ways to create the India of their dreams. Venkapaiyya worked in the district court at Kasargod, Kerala eventually retiring a few years before India became independent and spent his days administering the laws of British India.

Described as 'the temple of resurgent India', Bhakra displaced many people.
Bad times at Baddi
Unless industries clean up their act and authorities take it up seriously, Baddi’s water will continue to be polluted causing hardship to its residents. Posted on 09 Aug, 2017 05:59 AM

When Satya Devi was a child, the open well near her house in the village of Malku Majra was the water source for the household. She reminisces, “The water was clean and soft. The well would never go dry.

The state pollution control board insists that none of the factories in the area allow any pollutants to be discharged into the environment. The state of the surface water bodies, however, belies this statement.
Renuka raises crucial questions
Nobody is clear about the need for a dam in Renuka valley. Despite this, the people of the valley are being displaced without adequate compensation.
Posted on 18 Jul, 2017 05:48 AM

When I meet Puran Chand, an activist in the forefront of the anti-Renuka dam struggle, he dictates from the two much-thumbed pages of his notebook the several objections he has against the government’s plan for the rehabilitation of people displaced by the Renuka dam.

The opening of the header tunnel for Renuka dam has already been constructed.
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