This brochure offers decision-makers in the real estate and energy industries, as well as urban and municipal developers, a broad overview of the topics of decentralised energy generation and supply, and raises awareness of the goal of decarbonisation by 2050 at the latest. The advancing digitalization in the construction and …
THE Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank ( WB ) has inspired hope among many environmental activists and organisations. They expect it to provide the much-needed scrutiny of the Bank"s activities, many of which aid and abett the wasteful exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation and consequent human suffering. …
WE CANNOT help being sceptical when the World Bank tells us that it is henceforth going to encourage and practice participatory decisionmaking. The move to have an Inspection Panel is the latest gimmick of the World Bank's (WB), resourceful public relations system. Apart from the fact that such gestures are …
THE World Summit for Social Development, held recently in Copenhagen, was convened to discuss 3 of the most critical issues facing humankind today--poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. Three UN official statements, prepared by NGOs prior to the Summit, were considered for the final NGO statement--the Oslofjord Declaration, the New Agenda …
PARCHED brown fields, often empty, dry paddy stalks - PanchanthangiPatti, a village 26 km from Madurai, is a mute victim of the chronic drought that afflicts the area. There are 30 other nearby villages cracking at the lips. But one more year and all their troubles should be over. There …
The Bhairu Lok Abhyaranya Dakav in Bhanwta, near Sariska, Rajasthan, is a sanctuary with a difference. It is a sanctuary declared, protected and managed by the people. "We call it the sonchidi, since it is as precious as a sone ki chidiya (the golden bird)," says Kanhaiyalal Gujjar, a member …
Our syllabi (for training forest officials) still have manuals written during the Raj S K Mukherjee Acting director, Wildlife Institute, Dehradun Why do you still train foresters in horseriding and shooting, 5 decades after the British have left? Surely, that's teaching them to charge against us. Nanakram Gujjar, a villager …
UPROOTED 4 times in 3 decades. Thirty thousand villagers of Madhya Pradesh were first displaced during the construction of the Rihand dam (late '50s); later, again, when coal was found in the mid-70s; a third time, to make room for industry; and finally, when the Singrauli mega thermal power station …
Democracy entails statutory safeguards against infringement of the inalienable rights of the people. But in the country today, the state of legislations protecting the people from wanton development is abysmal. Only Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra have some kind of an act regarding resettlement and rehabilitation. In Karnataka, the Act …
What do you give to oustees who have been cleared away in the name of a developmental project? Take land, give land, says the government, without, however, seeming too eager to stick by its own cryptic formula. The Sardar Sarovar Project, for instance, guarantees every displaced adult (defined as a …
"We were thrown out in July 1974, during the rains. They didn't give us houses, or even money to build them. We took shelter under the trees," says Khudyan Singh Moravi, a Baiga tribal from Lonadhar, Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. Moravi's only fault was that he had been staying within …
...cried the NGOs, oustees, social scientists and mass leaders in unison. Neither the secretive methods of the government nor the general policies laid down in the draft were acceptable to them. "It is a matter of shame that this draft policy is being formulated more for satisfying the conditions laid …
MAKAR Sankranti, January 14, is an auspicious day for Hindus. In Rajasthan, it is the day of reconciliation. This year, a motley group of 15-odd people set out that day on a 15,000 km walkathon through 18 sanctuaries and national parks (NPs) spread over 5 states. Their moving force was …
The Sri Lanka government has asked farmers, community organisations, NGOs and small and medium scale enterprises to comment on the draft of a revised forest policy before the final policy is framed. However, former conservator of forests, V R Nanayakkara points out that the money being poured into the revision …
THE notification of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, finally announced by the Union government in the first week of February, had long been promised as a sharp, surgical strike against the practitioners of the human organs trade in the country. Going by the reception it has been accorded, …
The Project Tiger lobby came together in a show of strength in the Capital at a meeting organised by the Ranthambore Foundation on February 17-18. Revealing their entrenched position, the conservationists iterated the necessity for greater policing of tiger habitats by plugging loopholes in government policies and enforcement measures. The …
DESPITE its eminent contributors, publisher and volume, Reaching India's Poor seems to be only rationalising the diminishing role of the state in the public health sector. The introduction says that government programmes have been to unable to reach the poor while the nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have successfully addressed their problems. …
EVEN New Delhi's misty winter cannot obscure the city's muck. Mounds of garbage appear at almost every twist and turn of Delhi's sidelanes because the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) antiquated trucks and wayward workforce cannot cope. Concerned at the deteriorating situation, some neighbourhoods in south Delhi have picked up …
FOR the residents of Nari, a village of 700 households in the Una district of Himachal Pradesh, underdevelopment and poverty is losing its harsh edge, thanks to the introduction of a few simple and cheap devices like water seal toilets and biogas plants. The devices are being promoted by the …
HUMANS, their thoughts and activities are the source of all Earthly evil and good. The Cold War has had a destabilising effect on many societies, in the short term. Unemployment and poverty are gnawing away at less developed societies, corroding the existing value system. The substantial material progress achieved during …
THE tribes of Gudalur taluk -- Betta Kurumbas, Moola Kurumbas, Paniyas, Irulas and Kattu Nayakans -- have been celebrating December 5 as Adivasi Day since 1988, when they held a rally for land rights in Gudalur town. It was December 4, 1994, the eve of Adivasi Day, at Kadichenkolly, a …
