Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Till a few years ago, women of Bisha Bedi village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district hardly slept at night. Throbbing pain in the neck and the back kept them awake till early morning. It was caused by fetching water over long distances. “We used to wake up at four in the …
This refers to the editorial “When business rules our kitchens” (June 16-30, 2011). Do we want to sensationalise the issue of poor food safety regulations and use big companies as a whipping boy or work on the solutions? How are we going to deal with the fundamental issue of feeding …
HealthDirty truth If you stop your children from eating mud, read this. Craving for earth—geophagy—can be one of the natural ways to protect stomach against pathogens. After studying 480 reports and analysing theories that geophagy is driven by hunger and for nutrients in the soil like iron, zinc or calcium …
ACTING on complaints of severe water shortage in Gurgaon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 20 asked the Central Ground Water Authority, or CGWA, to provide the details of groundwater levels in the fast-expanding industrial and financial hub. It set August 5 as the deadline. In February, the …
WATER resources and planning may shift from the State to the Concurrent List of the Constitution. The Ashok Chawla committee will make this suggestion when it tables its report before the Cabinet in June this year, sources say. The committee was set up in February this year to draw a …
THE Delhi government plans to set up a Waterbodies Authority for proper restoration and maintenance of lakes and wetlands in the city. The proposal to bring all waterbodies under one umbrella came up at a recent review meeting of waterbodies’ restoration work. Currently, lakes and wetlands in Delhi are under …
IN A landmark amendment to the law governing Maharashtra’s water regulatory system, the state has placed agriculture above industry in priority for allocating water from dams. Before the amendment of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) Act 2005, Maharashtra was the only state in the country to have given …
This is an environmental assessment study for the proposed National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP) to be implemented in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 Indian states with an aim to increase and sustain income of the poor, especially women.
Once-parched and barren Barmer is turning over a new leaf. About five years ago, Poona Ram, 45, shifted from this desert district of Rajasthan to Gujarat in search of work. He was unable to support his family at a place that could not give him employment. But Poona Ram returned. …
CHECK LAND SHARKS ASAD RAHMANI, director Bombay Natural History Society The Government of India should enact a wetland conservation act, on the lines of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. But it should also consider the views of people dependent on wetlands. Millions of acres of village, semi-urban and urban wetlands …
Some hundred people, men and women, were gathered on the hill. Many more, I could see, were trudging up. Their faces were resolute. I asked why they were opposing the cement plant. Their answer was simple: “We cannot eat cement.” “But the plant will bring you employment and prosperity,” I …
GLACIERS, reservoirs of fresh water on the earth, are assumed to be major indicators of climate change. Since their melting contributes to drinking water, water for agriculture and hydropower in densely populated regions in South and Central Asia, glaciers have become a major concern for these regions. Himalayan glaciers are …
The Kirloskar Group is all set to play God. In a TV ad the engineering company claimed it can lift lakes that stand in the way of development projects and relocate them. So all projects that earn the ire of environmental groups can hire the group’s services. The company said …
Call it the fallout of rapid urbanisation or plain negligence of the authorities, groundwater in Dhaka is sinking at an alarming rate. According to a study by the Institute of Water Modelling in Dhaka in 2009, groundwater in the city is going down three metres every year. It has sunk …
Business is brisk for John Daniel. He has sold more than 4,000 rainwater filters, mostly in Bengaluru, in the past eight months. This is a sudden climb from the 1,000-odd filters he sold in the previous five years. Sales shot up after the Karnataka government made rainwater harvesting (RWH) compulsory …
Google Maps is tangled in a border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. According to the Costa Rican press, misrepresentation of the country’s northeast around the river San Juan by Google Maps encouraged former Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Eden Pastora to conduct a river dredging operation in the disputed territory. Pastora …
Manoj Lodhiwal is the head salesperson at a household appliance store in south Delhi. Every morning as the storeowner performs puja, he examines how and where to display products. “The facade must remain stacked with home water purifiers; they are the hottest items,” Lodhiwal said. His store is in Mohan …
GROUNDWATER is becoming important to sustain agriculture, industry and drinking water. But as we exploit aquifers, more water becomes part of the hydrological cycle. A recent study shows evaporation and precipitation of groundwater is responsible for a fourth of the annual sea level rise of 3.1 mm. The study, to …
THE world’s rivers are threatened due to mismanagement and pollution. This imperils eight of every 10 people as well as 10,000-20,000 species that call them home. This is the finding of the first global initiative that assessed water security for people and river biodiversity. Eleven scientists identified 23 stressors, such …
THE Nagpur bench of the Mumbai high court has ordered restoration of the world’s third largest meteorite lake in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra. A recent study by a group appointed by the court, pointed out that Lonar lake is a dumping ground for raw sewage from localities in the …
