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)
Call for Applications: Benefit Sharing in River Systems Capacity Building Programme
A regional leadership and capacity building programme for water professionals working with Civil Society Organisations.
Posted on 25 Jan, 2017 03:32 PM

LEAD India is pleased to announce a highly innovative regional leadership and capacity building programme for water professionals working with Civil Society Organisations (CSO's). The programme is focused on nurturing leadership for transboundary cooperation and related issues, both at community and regional levels.
Inform us about future hydel projects: Pakistan to India
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 23 Jan, 2017 08:50 PM

India should inform us about its future hydel projects: Pakistan
Chenab river (Source: Wikipedia commons)
Centre initiates moving water to concurrent list
Policy matter this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 23 Jan, 2017 08:05 PM

Process to move water to concurrent list begins
Yamuna river in Delhi (Source: Sudhanshu Malhotra via IWP Flickr Photos)
Capital punishment
While Delhi gasps for fresh air, its green lung, the Delhi ridge, is shrinking in space due to encroachment.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 20 Jan, 2017 08:37 PM

It may come as a surprise to many that Delhi, a bustling metropolis and home to a population of over 18.6 million, has one of the largest stretches of forests in the country bang in the middle of the city.
Kamala Nehru forest in the northern part of the ridge is home to several historical monuments. (Source: Harsha NH, Wikimedia Commons)
No man's land
The state of the poromboke lands in Chennai signifies the deteriorating nature of its ecology. Saving them is important not just to preserve a tradition but also to safeguard growing urban spaces.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 18 Jan, 2017 09:39 PM

From its rather benign origins connoting a type of land classification, the term poromboke has transformed into something grotesque over the years. This term had been in use since the Cholas denoting stretches of land reserved for shared communal use which cannot be bought or sold.
The Ennore creek choked by fly ash. (Screen grab from the Chennai poromboke paadal)
Chennai takes the wooded road
Better green cover could be a way to reduce the extent of disaster a Vardah could bring. Here’s a lowdown on the trees that Chennai must have.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 16 Jan, 2017 10:45 PM

 
One of the many trees uprooted by cyclone Vardah in Chennai (Image: Seetha Gopalakrishnan, IWP)
Acquired lands lay barren, SC questions states
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 16 Jan, 2017 12:11 PM

Why are lands acquired from farmers barren? SC asks states
Women farmers protest against land acquisition (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
State of rivers goes south
Rivers turn muck in many stretches in south India calling for action before they dry up completely.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 14 Jan, 2017 05:40 PM

At a time when the government’s attention is steered towards the concerns of the northern rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna, it is seldom that the polluted rivers of the south India come up for discussion.
Water-borne litter in Salem, Tamil Nadu. (Source: Parvathisri, Wikimedia Commons)
The doer from the Thar
There are many unsung heroes amidst us who go about their good work silently. Chattar Singh is one such hero who has revived traditional water management system of the parched Jaisalmer villages.
Manu Moudgil
Posted on 10 Jan, 2017 10:53 PM

“Can you see the alternating bands of light and shadow in the sky?” Chattar Singh asks me. When I nod in affirmation, he continues, “This is Mogh. There are clouds where the sun is setting right now. If we get a favourable wind, these clouds will reach here and we may get rain by night. In desert, people live by such clues from nature.”  
Despite all the great work, Chattar Singh's demeanour remains unassuming. Source: Farhad Contractor
Maharashtra gears up for irrigation projects
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 09 Jan, 2017 10:14 AM

Maharashtra approves cost overrun in irrigation projects, set to complete Gosikhurd project
Irrigation canal from the Bhima dam, Maharashtra (Source: Nvvchar on Wikipedia)
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