The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
This publication focusses on the Aral Sea crisis - the result of economic processes set in motion by the planners of the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1950s. It is one of the biggest ecological disasters, second only to Chernobyl, leading to a total collapse of the socio-economic life of …
E.coli bacteria in New yoWs municipal water supply? it impossible. After A citizens had once christened thill -clumimne of mu"idpot w*toe. The system hod been cmpmhon&e; Protective measures. out I years a", td Wnnad L oPH bacteria in the water. People complained that they wore having to bol bolbro drin". …
THE watershed development programme in the country is all set to get a major thrust with the decision of the ministry of rural areas and employment to set aside Rs 3,000 crore - almost half of the total funds meant fot the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and the Employment Assurance Scheme …
IT WAS a Herculean task. For 6 months in 1993, the residents of Kabripathar village enthusiastically carved channels in the unflinching, hard soil, laid pipes and tamped down and levelled the sloping land. Today, this newly-established lift irrigation system is helping them battle the tyranny of the seasons: they can …
"At least we have now begun to talk "to" each other, rather than spitting venom "at" each other in public," says BG Verghese of Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Verghese, a veteran on the changing trends of Indo-Bangladesh relations, was commenting on the recently held talks between the foreign …
IN INDIA, of an annual precipitation of 4,000 billion cubic metres (bcm), 1,000 bcm flows into the sea, taking along with it 12,000 million tonnes of soil. This causes siltation, floods and soil infertility, consequently resulting in economic loss due to low crop yield. Watershed management has been recognised as …
COMMUNITY participation in constructing and managing check dams and the use of water through lift irrigation has transformed the local ecosystem of 37 tribal villages in the Vansda taluk of Gujarat"s Valsad district. Cropping patterns, incomes, employment and even the social system have undergone remarkable changes. The villagers are now …
THE temporary check dams (locally known as bandharas) across streams, have made a huge impact on the agricultural system in Hivare, a drought-prone village 35 km from Pune on the Pune-Saswad road. Even a year ago, the villagers of Hivare wouldn't have dared to dream of watering their fields all …
INTEGRATED development has changed the Hivare landscape in more ways than one. Check dams have raised the groundwater level, slowed down erosion and helped increase crop yields. Villagers like 67-year-old G D Gurav hope that water and fuelwood problems will be solved shortly. The villagers used to migrate to cities …
"For a long time now, we have been calculating the number of people below and above the poverty line. And, these numbers have become a hot political issue. But the important thing is to eradicate hunger. This can be done by identifying the critical areas of poverty and helping the …
CAN REGENERATING villages revive denuded hills? And, vice versa, can regenerating hills revive impoverished villages? Daulat Ram, the old man of Sukhomajri, a Gujjar hamlet near Chandigarh, once said, "Hills and human beings have the same power. If their energies are put together instead of being set against each other, …
"I WAS A labourer, but now, because of the project, I am free. I cannot explain what this means to me," says Dadabhau Jadhav, a frail, small-built Thakkar Adivasi of Mothewadi village in the foothills of Maharashtra's Sahyadri range. For generations, the Thakkar Adivasis have worked as contract and even …
LABELLING the government's forest policy, in force since 1988, as monopolistic and inefficient, the World Bank (WB) insists the best solution now would be to encourage private industrial plantations on forest lands. WB has issued its latest review of the country's forest sector, describing it as an "overview...for Indian policy …
WORLD Bank documents reveal the following stages in its forestry policy evaluation: 1950-1978:Concentration on industrial plantations and logging operations. 1978-1990: -- Thrust on social forestry (developing fuelwood plantations) and watershed management. Forestry included in such sectors as rural development, agriculture, irrigation and energy. 1991: revision -- Focus on protection of …
"The Raindrop" is about a village near Chandigarh in Haryana. The book tells the story how this village was able to transform itself from a drought prone one to a food exporting one through community efforts and scientific watershed management.
Farm forestry was promoted in India in the late 1970s to produce fuelwood for rural consumption. The program was immensly successful in the green revolution region in the early 1980s, but farmers produced wood for markets, and not to meet local needs. This market orientation of farmers was recognized in …
The current drought has spurred Indian agricultural scientists to formulate guidelines for combating different rain scarcity situations -- when rains start late, when they are less than normal, when they taper off early, and when there is a big break in rainfall in between. This exercise will be the first …
THE current drought across central and western India and Kerala is forcing attention once again on how to deal with the problem. Ecologists have always had a deep interest in the problem, their argument being that societal susceptibility to drought increases with ecological degradation. And, through ecological improvement, this susceptibility …
Vilas Salunke Grain Gaurav Pratislithan Post Box No 1202 67 Hadapsar Industrial Estate Puna 411 013 R K Patil Centre for Applied Systems and Analysis Ganesh Kutir 1st Floor 68 Prarthana Samaj Road Ville Parts (E) Bombay 400 057 Anna Hazare Village Ralegan Siddhi Taluka Painter Alunadhagar district Maharashtra M …
