Reply affidavit on behalf of the Central Ground Water Board in the matter of Suo Moto case titled "Haryana 60.48% groundwater over exploited Kurukshetra worst Jhajjar best says" appearing in the Tribune, January 8, 2025. The CGWA report, May 3, 2025 addresses the issue of groundwater exploitation and violation of …
Contemporary efforts to protect biodiversity internationally are beset by multiple problems. Growing consumption pressures are contributing to ever faster declines in species and the systems they depend on. Available funds for conservation have declined. High visibility issues such as global climate change have attracted significant attention in the past decade, …
Satpura National Park has been one of the most liked places of eco-tourism in Madhya Pradesh because of its hilly location. Having been interested in assessment of ecotourism in terms of its objective that is encouragement towards protection and growth in the quantity and quality of forest and environment and …
This manual provides the materials needed to deliver a basic training in access and benefit sharing (ABS) of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge as provided for under the Convention on Biological Diversity. The background, key components and procedures, and obligations, rights, and responsibilities of the different actors involved are …
The objectives of this Treaty are the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security. These objectives will …
The Khangchendzonga National Park, located in Sikkim is a part of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot. Traditional sheep herding practices in the park based on village consultations and field surveys to understand the population trend, migration pattern, fodder preferences, incomes and benefit sharing, ecological impacts and risk mitigation techniques were …
Have you noticed how the mighty automobile industry in the US is beginning to sound like the now infamous tobacco industry at the time of its collapse, taking cover behind the people it employed to whitewash its inefficiency and perhaps its sheer inappropriateness? The tobacco industry, in its last days …
Transboundary rivers are increasingly being drawn upon to meet the needs of growing populations and economies. This increased pressure on the available water resources sharpens competing demands between countries, rural and urban areas, different user groups, and the river ecosystems themselves. The challenge is to balance these competing demands in …
Political boundaries do not limit the movement of biological resources and knowledge. Countries in the Himalayan region share common biological resources and traditional knowledge, and protection and sustainable use cannot be planned effectively by single countries in isolation. The unsustainable exploitation of wild flora and fauna is continuing through cross-border …
Nature cannot offer services without payment anymore The dejected eyes of Kartar Chand Rana, 52, panned the breached checkdam in his village, Kuhan. As head of the gram vikas samiti he ordered the breaking of the embankment of the very dam that fed his half hectare land until last year. …
Earlier this year, I called the Union budget myopic (see Down To Earth, March 31, 2008). Let me reiterate why. The Union budget did not take into account the fact the world was beginning to face new challenges, all of which were devastating, and related. One, the rising cost of …
This paper explores two propositions regarding international river basins: cooperative development of international rivers offers unique economic advantages over unilateral development; and benefit sharing is a necessary condition for facilitating this cooperation. Despite the intuitive appeal of benefit sharing, clear benchmarks and good practices in structuring agreeable benefit sharing arrangements …
A few years ago I wrote about a textile town called Pali, in Rajasthan, which had completely toxified its seasonal river Bandi with industrial discharge. Then, I said the real story was not about pollution but the anger of farmers whose agricultural lands were destroyed because of effluents, whose well …
Present biodiversity conservation programmes in the remaining extensive forest blocks of the humid tropics are failing to achieve outcomes that will be viable in the medium to long term. Too much emphasis is given to what we term
Sustainable tourism (ST) development in Zanzibar is considered as one of the vital activities that could generate income for day-to-day management of protected areas through benefit-sharing. This paper examines the potential of benefit-sharing from sustainable tourism in the Kiwengwa-Pongwe tourism zone (KPTZ) in Zanzibar from two major routes: water services …
A two days planning workshop with Gujjars pastoralists who are full time pastorlists from Sariska Tiger Reserve, organised by KRAPAVIS held at its Training Centre at Bakhtpura (Alwar). About 40 Gujjar leaders from different villages; Binak
This year, for once, the devastating floods of Bihar seem to have touched us. Last year, when the same region was reeling under what was said to be the worst floods in living history, we simply did not know. Media had flashed a few images, but it was more of …
