Ecology and Environment

Featured Articles
December 16, 2022 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 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 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 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 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 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)
Unravelling Kuttanad’s drinking water paradox
Floods such as in 2018 could take the situation downhill causing severe drinking water crisis. Posted on 24 Feb, 2020 12:55 PM

Surrounded by vast expanses of water, the Kuttanad region in Alleppey district, Kerala faces severe drinking water scarcity due to infrastructure failure and civic body inaction.

Lack of sufficient quality water, poor pipe connectivity and frequent breakdown of existing pipelines are common in the area (Image: Jayasree Vaidyanathan)
USD 450 million loan from the World Bank for Atal Bhujal Yojana
Policy matters this week Posted on 22 Feb, 2020 09:39 PM

World Bank to provide USD 450 million loan for Atal Bhujal Yojana

Atal Bhujal Yojana aims to arrest the country's depleting groundwater levels (Source: IWP Flicke photos)
Decentralised groundwater governance to deal with the groundwater crisis
Decentralised groundwater governance frameworks that integrate democratic institutional mechanisms are needed to deal with the current groundwater crisis in India. Posted on 17 Feb, 2020 05:43 PM

The challenges to sustain groundwater dependency in India are many where groundwater over extraction is not only leading to rapid depletion of the resource, but also giving rise to water quality issues in a situation where the response at the level of policy continues to be lukewarm.

The need for decentralised governance to deal with the current groundwater crisis (Image Source: ACWADAM)
Waterways spell disaster for Gangetic dolphins
A study shows that noise pollution due to industrial transportation and recreational waterways over the Ganga can spell doom for dolphins by affecting their feeding habits and social behaviours. Posted on 10 Feb, 2020 02:50 PM

Noise pollution, a rising threat

The Gangetic dolphin (Image Source: Arati Kumar Rao)
Mumbai lost 71 percent of wetlands in last four decades: Report
News this week Posted on 09 Feb, 2020 07:11 PM

Among 22 cities in India, Mumbai has lost the maximum number of wetlands: WISA

The pink guests of Sewri wetland, Maharashtra (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Jal Jeevan Mission receives Rs 11,500 crore allocation in Budget 2020-21
Policy matters this week Posted on 06 Feb, 2020 10:07 PM

Government allocates Rs 11,500 crore to Jal Jeevan Mission for 2020-21

In the budget 2020-21, the Finance Ministry has allocated Rs 11,500 crore to the Jal Jeevan Mission for the year for 2020-21.

Women filling water from a tap (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Managing commons: Need and challenges
How can technology, knowledge and capacity creation help in management of commons? Posted on 06 Feb, 2020 07:17 PM

Common pool resources, popularly known as “commons”, are those resources which are accessible to the whole community or village and to which no individual has exclusive ownership or property rights. Commons have two essential characteristics: non-excludability and high-subtractability.

Plantation in Gomala (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)
Perils, politics and prospects of groundwater in India
How can India change the game on groundwater management to deal with its overexploited aquifers? Posted on 05 Feb, 2020 03:15 PM

After independence, India was largely food insecure but post Green Revolution around the 1970s, foodgrain production increased manifold consequently reducing food insecurity and poverty in the country, in spite of rapid population growth. Its ability to achieve targeted results was largely dependent on the explosion of groundwater abstraction mechanisms like tubewells.

An irrigation well at Randullabad, Maharashtra. (Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr)
Mountain women bear the brunt of climate change
There is a need to enable a conducive action oriented environment to address entrenched gendered vulnerabilities. Posted on 01 Feb, 2020 09:02 AM

Climate change impacts are disproportionate and influence lives and livelihoods variedly. One crucial determinant of these disproportionate impacts is gender. Existing social norms determine roles and responsibilities, entitlements and capabilities, thereby influencing the individual perceptions of shocks and susceptibility which vary across gender groups.

Women stand to be highly vulnerable in most cases to the changes in the climate and its extremes. (Image: Bo Nielson, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Micropollutants in groundwater, a grave concern
A study finds that a number of locations in the country have high concentrations of micropollutants in groundwater posing a risk to health and environment. Posted on 30 Jan, 2020 01:03 PM

Groundwater pollution due to organic micropollutants is becoming a major cause of concern in many parts of the world, where water resources are on the decline. India is the largest user of groundwater and the presence of micropollutants in groundwater has been a growing concern. What do studies on micropollutants in groundwater in India show?

Groundwater contamination, a serious concern (Image Source: India Water Portal)
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