Ecology and Environment

Featured Articles
December 16, 2022
Healthy soil critical to human health and for achieving SDGs
Soil research must focus both on technology development and implementation
The ability of soils to support soil functions or services is decreasing (Image: Katrin Park/International Food Policy Research Institute)
November 25, 2022
Categorising watersheds for freshwater ecosystem conservation in India
These maps at the watershed scales have been made to not only ensure inclusion of different freshwater ecosystems, their connectivity and hydrological processes, but can also provide a spatial context for conservation decisions.
A stream at Anini, Arunachal Pradesh (Image Source: Roshni Arora)
November 16, 2022
Improving community resilience in ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction in India
Adoption of hybrid solutions - grey and green structures appropriate for resilience building
Healthy wetland ecosystems help in reducing disaster risks and managing climate risks (Image: Pxhere)
October 30, 2022
Slow disaster: Political ecology of hazards and everyday life in the Brahmaputra valley, Assam
This book by Dr. Mitul Baruah presents a fascinating, ethnographic account of the challenges faced by communities living in Majuli, India, one of the largest river islands in the world, which has experienced immense socio-environmental transformations over the years, processes that are emblematic of the Brahmaputra Valley as a whole. This is an excerpt from the book.
Floods are recurrent phenomena in Assam (Image: Mitul Baruah)
October 6, 2022
Deteriorating landscapes and threatened ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir
Rapid urbanisation and faulty land use policies are rapidly destroying forests, grasslands and wetlands in Jammu and Kashmir, India and the ecosystem value services they provide. Can these valuable ecosystems be saved?
Deteriorating ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir, India (Image Source: tkohli at Flickr via Wikimedia Commons)
July 14, 2022
Ichamati: River of poetry is dying a slow death
The river is faced with the dual problem of flood plain encroachment and growing levels of water pollution
Illegal transverse check dams (Badhals) built on Ichamati near a village in Basirhat (Image: Prithviraj Nath @ TheWaterChronicles)
Process of formation of Jajmau Area Water Partnership in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh – Problems and solutions
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.
Veena Khanduri
India Water Partnership
Posted on 13 Jan, 2013 12:01 PM

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.

Studying climate change in India- A book review in Economic and Political Weekly
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.
Jayanta Bandyopadhyay
Posted on 12 Jan, 2013 10:44 PM

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. The author of the article states that the book is an important addition to the body of knowledge on the subject of climate change. The articles in the book are written from diverse view points by authors who are activists, researchers, diplomats, policymakers, and politicians.

Greening rural development in India - A report that reviews and recommends steps on goverment implemented green schemes
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.
Ministry of Rural Development
Posted on 11 Jan, 2013 07:49 PM

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.
Traditional diversion-based phad irrigation systems help mitigate risk of crop failure in the drought-prone farmer suicide belt of Vidarbha, Maharashtra
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.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 11 Jan, 2013 11:56 AM

Many of these systems (1) continue to function and are often more sustainable, cost-effective and successfully managed by local institutions. Phads are one such community-based and managed diversion irrigation management system (2) prevailing in the north-western part of Maharashtra and date back to the early 16th century as per historical accounts. The system is prevalent in the Tapi basin on rivers the Panjhra, Mosam and Aram in Dhule and Nashik districts (3).

Phads or diversion-based irrigation systems, are being revived and promoted in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra by Dilasa, a Yavatmal-based voluntary development organisation (Video courtesy: Dilasa)

Report on Greening of the NRDWP: News and Policy Update from India WASH Forum e-Newsletter-Dec 2012
Report on Greening of the NRDWP: News and Policy Update from India WASH Forum e-Newsletter-Dec 2012
India Wash Forum
Posted on 11 Jan, 2013 07:44 AM

WASHGender in WASH: Misplaced perspective in WASH sector
AnRak Aluminium in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh: Another Vedanta in the making ? – An article in EPW
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.
Posted on 10 Jan, 2013 10:35 PM

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.

AnRak Aluminium, a company of the government of Rasal-Khaimah of the United Arab Emirates and Penna Cement of AP has secured approval for both an aluminium complex and the bauxite mines, but the final forest clearance for the mines is awaited.

The AnRak project has replicated the Vedanta model of first building the refinery and then setting up the mine. The mine is to be operated by the state government to circumvent the ban on non-tribal landownership.

LEISA magazine special issues in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu - A compilation of selected articles on combating desertification
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.
Low external input and sustainable agriculture (LEISA) India
Posted on 10 Jan, 2013 12:08 PM

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. 
Sand mining – An unexamined threat to water security
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.
Kiran Pereira
Posted on 09 Jan, 2013 08:12 PM

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.
Transformation of a landscape from a desert to replenished watershed in Kaluchi Thakarwadi, Maharashtra- Special edition on "Combating desertification" by Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) India
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.
Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) India
Posted on 08 Jan, 2013 09:21 PM


Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival, Pune, Maharashtra, January 25 - February 2, 2013
Posted on 07 Jan, 2013 10:21 PM

Kirloskar Vasundhara international film festivalThe Kirloskar Vasundhara international

Subscribe to Ecology and Environment