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 …
Gandhi's vision of self-sufficient villages in India still remains a distant dream. Community participation and decentralisation seem nothing but, oft-repeated rhetoric from our politicians. But few individuals do try to rise against the tide and show a ray of hope. Parasu Ram Mishra who died on March 25 this year …
Water has suddenly become a favoured subject for seminars and conferences all over the world. A common trend in most of the discussions is to proceed from projections of demand to supply-side solutions in the form of ‘water resource development’ projects; estimate the massive investment funds needed; take note of …
Water has suddenly become a favoured subject for seminars and conferences all over the world. A common trend in most of the discussions is to proceed from projections of demand to supply-side solutions in the form of ‘water resource development’ projects; estimate the massive investment funds needed; take note of …
Much water has flown in the history of Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district. The legendary romance of Rani Rupmati and Bag Bahadur has found indelible expressions in numerous waterbodies of the district's fort town Mandu. Most of these traditional water harvesting structures were built by Bag Bahadur for his love Rupmati. …
Participatory democracy is finally coming of age. At least in Madhya Pradesh (mp). A process that began with empowering the tribal people of Jhabua district in 1994 is culminating in Gram Swarajya for every person living in the 70,000-odd villages of mp . To coincide with India's 51st Republic Day, …
For the rural poor – who depend above all the land for their survival – a central development challenge is to sustain a base of natural capital that can support a robust local economy. In India, government mismanagement of forests, grazing lands, and water resources has often alienated rural people …
In our January 15, 2000 issue, Down To Earth had highlighted the situation in drought-struck areas of Gujarat. The conclusion was that villages with structures to harvest rainwater were faring much better than villages which had forgotten the value of rain (see:
Achampet mandal of Mahabubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh (AP), was in the clutch of drought six years ago. But it is doing well at present. “Satellite images show an improvement of about 300 per cent between February 1994 and March 1998 with regard to the groundwater table,” says Ramesh Reddy, head …
SEVERAL messages emerge from the analysis of crash programmes to harvest rainwater in Gujarat and ap. It is amply clear that the government of Gujarat has been much more successful in addressing the need of the hour than the AP government. POLITICIANS' RESPONSE: The way the political establishment has gone …
It was quite visible in several districts, whether it was Rajkot, Junagadh or Jamnagar in Saurashtra or Bhuj in Kachchh. People in several villages of these drought-prone regions looked a lot more confident in September 2000 about dealing with drought in the future. Barely four months ago, they had looked …
the people of Bhaonta-Kolyala village of Alwar district of Rajasthan have constructed a stone checkdam, reinforcing their earlier Johad (earthen dam). "This has been possible because of the Rs 1,00,000 prize given to us by Down To Earth ( dte ),'says Kanhaiya Lal, one of the villagers. The Down To …
One small village in Maharashtra is the teaching ground for five state governments today. Anna Saheb Hazare is the benevolent teacher. He teaches common sense. Rules of simple and sustainable living that the nation has learned to forget. Practices that have made Ralegan Siddhi an example for the numerous developmental …
floods sweep through the village, the land is left uncultivable, the wells get filled with pebbles and mud. Agriculture becomes impossible. A cry of despair and despondency from the unfortunate residents would be a common sequel to this. Not in the villages of the Chaksu Block of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Thanks …
nature has a way of moderating the effects of good and evil. Down the years humankind has demonstrated a general disregard for natural resources and often exploitated bio-diversity to the hilt. Fortunately, this has been coun-tered by a few dedicated people engaged in protecting and conserving nature without any ulterior …
In the past 50 years, the Indian government has spent vast sums of money on water resource development. Programmes have focussed on irrigation development for increasing Green Revolution-style agricultural production and drinking water supply. But no specific effort has been directed to drought-proof rainfed areas which suffer from high rainfall …
With the spate of political support that the concept of rainwater harvesting has received in recent weeks from Central ministers and state chief ministers, the attack from pro-dam lobbies had to come. The government of Gujarat appears to be especially miffed as it had probably hoped that this drought would …
During one of the meetings of the World Water Commission, which recently submitted its report in The Hague to a bevy of water ministers, a member had strongly emphasised the need for educating politicians about the importance of water. I, however, found that argument incorrect because I have rarely met …
At the instance of the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh has been invited to inaugurate a workshop on community-based watershed management at the Second World Water Forum to be held in The Hague in March. The invitation comes in the wake of …
