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 …
The traditional management of Mudiyanur tank provides an interesting example of a system of management that ensured fair distribution of water to the land of all households, promoted respect for different roles in society, and sought to resolve conflict between different parties in as harmonious a manner as possible. The …
Local communities have always found ingenious ways to overcome adverse conditions like floods, which affect not only farming but also lives and livelihoods. Over centuries, people have evolved ways and means to adapt to this natural phenomenon and have learnt to live with flooding situations.
Involving local communities in identifying local solutions is the best way to address local water problems. Experience of MITTRA is one such example which depicts communities taking charge of developing water sources and managing them well too.
Many poor urban households are active in local production of food and related activities (e.g. food processing and street vending of food, compost making, supply of animal feed). Some of these poor urban and periurban producers are mainly interested in producing food for their own household consumption, to save some …
Wildlife conservation in India is facing monumental challenges. To withstand the onslaught of development and other threats, it is essential to understand how different wildlife conservation models have fared and what needs to be done. Gha zala Shahabuddin’s Con ser vation at the Crossroads does exactly that. Well researched, succinct …
Most rivers and streams in urban India are dead or on the verge of collapse. With a very few and rare exceptions, these once-beautiful water bodied have been encroached upond, sources dried up or converted into sewage drains all over the country.
Gurgaon: With the government yet to find a solution to power shortage that has crippled industrial units in Udyog Vihar, industrialists in the area have decided to set up their own power plants through public-private partnership (PPP). The industry association has prepared a plan to construct four captive power plants, …
Fifty years after setting foot in Gombe, Jane Goodall calls for urgent action to save our closest living relatives from extinction in the wild. Conservationists and local people must collaborate, she and Lilian Pintea conclude. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7303/pdf/466180a.pdf
This FAO study analyses national legislation on wildlife management in 12 countries in Asia and Oceania. It identifies strengths and weaknesses of legal frameworks in promoting sustainable wildlife management and proposes options to support empowerment of the poor. Authored by Elsa Tsioumani and Elisa Morgera, this study presents a comparative …
Numerous countries have undergone decentralisation reforms in the management of natural resources. However, the policies implemented are often not applied in ways compatible with the democratic potential with which decentralisation is conceived. The paper analyses the issue of decentralisation in resource management, in Thanagazi block, Alwar District, Rajasthan. In this …
New ways of thinking about governance are challenging our basic understandings about how we organise ourselves in a world that is increasingly characterised by uncertainty, ambiguity and unpredictability, and about how we should organise ourselves (emphasis added). Through consideration of developments in East Africa under the auspices of a United …
The vision of A Nirmal Bharat! is the dream of a nation where every person has an aspiration and right to live in an environment, which is clean and healthy. It is an environment where the people living within imbibes and practices living in a clean environment as a way …
In Nepal, lost in the chaos of political upheavals, a silent revolution is afoot. In remote villages of this mountainous and energy-starved country people are demanding their right to electricity. They say electricity is a national good; everyone must have a right to it. This is not to say Nepal …
Across Nepal, close to 420 electricity user groups, cooperatives and committees are working to extend the grid into villages. They are taking charge of electricity distribution, maintenance and ‘customer service’. Together they have electrified 176,000 rural households according to nea; another 90,000 are in the pipeline. These numbers are significant …
Away from the grid, villages have been generating their own electricity for decades in Nepal. The country is the developing world’s petri dish for experiments on small-scale renewables. Generous international donors have supported biomass (biogas, improved cooking stoves and biofuels); mini- and micro-hydro power; improved water mills; solar (photovoltaic and …
Meticulously planned off-grid systems of power generation face the greatest threat from haphazard extension of the grid. “The subsidy is disbursed, plants are built, and then mothballed as soon as the grid reaches,” Ratna Sansar Shrestha, water and energy policy analyst, said. Despite the long and frequent power cuts, many …
A Consumer movement is catching on in Nepal.Communities are extending the grid to villages.This threatens to undo the effort put in small-scale off-grid power generation to fight poverty. How can Nepal harmonize the two initiatives ? Read More - http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/when-villages-plug
The first thing that greets the eye at Amader Haspatal, a rural hospital in a remote part of West Bengal's tribal dominated Bankura district, is the sheer burst of colour all around.
