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 …
Increasing water scarcity is recognized as a key challenge to sustainable development and major cause of conflict, social unrest and changes to traditional migration routes and new migration patterns. At the same time water is increasingly considered as an instrument for international cooperation to support food production, livelihoods, ecosystems, climate …
DMRC officials also told the court that six stations — Tagore Garden, Welcome, Botanical Garden, Karkardooma, Anand Vihar and Dhaula Kuan —had rainwater harvesting structures, but they were not functional. Rainwater harvesting systems at nine Metro stations in Delhi and Noida cannot be installed because the minimum land required for …
Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan (MJSA), described as the country's largest campaign of its kind towards water harvesting and conservation in rural areas, was launched by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday. The campaign, inaugurated by Ms. Raje at Jhalwar, and at other places across the State by the Ministers, …
The ruling alliance’s flagship rural employment programme took unprecedented strides in creating water conservation structures across the country, but only to harvest disillusionment. What went wrong? Down to Earth team traveled to Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in search of answers. This is the little known big story …
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 …
Down To Earth finds out how once-parched and barren district of Rajasthan, Barmer now sees development all around, thanks to the flood and rains. A barren district of Rajasthan is seeing development, thanks to rains last year and flood in 2006.
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. …
Poor access to appropriate technologies due to difficult topographies and tough mountain conditions is one of the major causes of poverty, drudgery and natural resources degradation not only in the Indian Central Himalaya, but also in other parts of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya. Of late, deve- lopment planners have realized the …
In many Indian villages, women and children spend a large part of the day fetching water over long distances. This is despite the Centre’s policy to provide drinking water to all rural habitations. The government set deadlines for providing 100 per cent drinking water cover to the country’s 1.6 million …
Excess fluoride in groundwater-based drinking water supply is a growing concern in semi-arid tropical (SAT) regions of India. More than 16 states in India are facing the fluorosis problem. Several southern-peninsular states are experiencing monsoon climate condition, where the rainwater is harvested through tanks and used for agriculture. Presence of …
He is a former MLA, a khandani landlord and owns more than 121 hectare (ha) apart from many local businesses. Known as the ‘sarkar’ of Sonkachch tehsil of the dry Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajendhra Singh Baghel met natural farming guru Subhash Palekar about 10 years ago. Today, …
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) came into existence after the enactment of the Parliament Act 'National Rural Employment Guarantee Act' (2005) in September 2005. The primary objective of the scheme is to provide 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult …
One of the major planks of rapid poverty reduction in the Eleventh Five Year Plan is the successful implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in majority of the states of India. The significance of NREGA lies in the fact that it creates a right based framework of wage …
A check-dam in coastal Gujarat sweetened water and changed farmers' lives. Now, another change is coming, a cement factory over the reservoir and the villagers are on the warpath.
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 …
Traditional farming knowledge on agroecosystem management promoted the low cost sustainable development in ecosystems through optimal use of natural resources. It protects and conserves ecological systems, and improving economic efficiency of the farming community. The coastal agroecosystem of Parangipettai (Portonovo) in Northeastern coastal Tamil Nadu is a typical agrisilvicultural zone …
While about 1.80 lack rural habitations across the country have been reported with excess contamination of available drinking water, as many as 111 districts in different States and Union Territories either do not have water quality testing laboratory or upgraded the existing ones to track various kinds of contaminants. According …
G Rajasekaran | ENS The scheme is irrelevant in most parts of Tamil Nadu. Farm wells are recharged by seepage from the fields; there is no necessity to construct a pit -- C Vaiyapuri CENTRALLY-SPONSORED rain wa- ter harvesting scheme `Artificial Re- charge of Groundwater Through Dug Wells in Hard …
Sarpanches and panches in four districts of Ferozepur district are part of a new pilot project launched by the district administration. They are being trained in a technology that deals with pollution caused by burning of paddy straw
