Affidavit on behalf of Union Territory of Puducherry in the matter of a news item titled "India lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000 Global Forest Watch" which appeared in the Indian Express, April 13, 2024. The report dated April 25, 2025 said that there is no loss …
two separate incidents have recently shown the sorry state of governance in India. One happened in Almora, Uttar Pradesh, while the other occurred in Gujarat. Both are states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party ( bjp ). Although on two different planks, both the events throw light on the intolerant …
it was a meeting with an amazing lesson. The subject was rainwater harvesting. But the message was one on governance. And a truly stark one. If only India could learn from it. Since the release of its book Dying Wisdom: The Rise, Fall and Potential of Traditional Rainwater Harvesting Systems …
In japan , "the land of paradoxes', as Masafumi Nagao, a professor at the Centre for the study of International Cooperation in Education at Hiroshima University, puts it, the third sector that constitutes the non-profit and the non-governmental sector "is not without history'. The first and the second sectors comprise …
it's now official. Cherrapunji, which holds the record for the highest rainfall in the world, faces water shortage. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the minister of state for agriculture Satyanarayana Rao said the water supply in Cherrapunji was
Is there a comprehensive wetland management policy in India? There is neither a policy nor a plan for wetland management in India. Ad-hocism prevails without understanding the science or the system. There have been plans to make a draft policy and submit it to the government for consideration, but I …
the Dropadi Naari Niketan Shantikunj, spread over 300 hectares near the township of Didihat in Pithoragarh district of Uttar Pradesh's Kumaon region, is a repository of 120-odd species of plants, ranging from tall trees to small shrubs. About 2,200 metres above sea level, Shantikunj is a storehouse of various floral …
people living in the Sagar taluk of Shimoga district in Karnataka have severely opposed a government move to construct a dam to irrigate nearly 405 hectares of khariff paddy land in the region. According to the non-government organisation ( ngo ) Vriksha Laksha Andolan ( vla ), the project will …
Indians have lived with drought since time immemorial. Communities have built water-harvesting structures and learnt to treasure the value of every raindrop. All this has been done keeping in mind that it does not rain throughout the year and it may not rain next year. Therefore it would not be …
NO ONE in the world would disagree that everyone should try to find ways and means to protect and improve the environment. But organisations are better equipped to do something concrete in this direction. What is possibly required is that these efforts should be properly managed at the corporate level. …
THE reality of participation has often differed from the rhetoric. In fact, much development, which is participatory in nature, has remained top-down in practice. This may be so because even though participation has been promoted, there has been no change in personal attitudes and more so in the bureaucratic set …
It was a real pleasure to go with President K R Narayanan to Hamirpura village. People always come to the Rashtrapati Bhawan estate to receive awards from the President. The fact that the President went to the village himself to honour it is a remarkable thing in itself. It is …
it was an event the villagers of Alwar district will not forget in a hurry. Four helicopters, numerous vehicles, a posse of policemen and 30,000-odd villagers had gathered in Hamirpura village in Thanagazi block of Alwar to welcome India's first citizen. And savour the fruits of their hard labour. The …
There was a time when people from other villagers were not interested in getting their daughters married to men from Guraiya village. They had a reason. During summer, the women were forced to carry drinking water from the river Bebas, three kilometres away. Now, it is the other way round. …
A tale of two villages There are about 600,000 villages in India. And perhaps as many kinds of environmental problems they face. It is easy to accept defeat. But Bhaonta-Kolyala did not it's an unusual ritual the villages of Bhaonta-Kolyala follow. Every year, they pour water into a johad - …
"The forest was dense till the 1960s," recalls Suryabhan Khorbade of Sayagata village in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district. During the British rule, people were allowed to enter the forests at their own will. But after Independence, when the forest department stepped in, there was a ban on access to the forests. …
Obensao Kikon (63) belongs to Wokha district in Nagaland. An :rdent jungle burner' at one time, his stint as the chairperson of the Market Federation of Nagaland changed his outlook. Thereafter, there has been no looking back. His 615-ha land in Wokha is full of teak and bamboo trees. He …
It is an oft-repeated story of dense forests being reduced to shrubs and coppice. In the case of Melaghar village in Sonmara subdivision, the 1971 Bangladesh war responsible for the wanton felling of the then abundant sal, teak and bamboo forests. A large number of refugees from across the border …
The heavily polluted Pasig River, Metro Manila's main waterway in the Philippines, is beginning to show signs of revival. Already locals have resumed fishing activities in the river. Lauding the efforts of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority ( mmda ) and the public in restoring the river, environment secretary Antonio …
