Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Gaurav Jain Vs State of Madhya Pradesh & Others dated 27/02/2024. The matter related to non-forest activities and non-compliances of environment clearance and forest clearance conditions by Larsen & Toubro Limited along with Narmada Valley Development …
The draft irrigation management policy prepared by the Central Water Commission aims to boost agricultural yield in places where the water potential exceeds the land potential, through self-management by farmers. The policy envisages that the operation and maintenance of water distribution systems such as distributaries of canals and minor irrigation …
"CULTIVATION in Ladakh is backbreaking because the water for irrigation has to hauled manually," says Soso of Phiang village, who is a clerk for the Ladakh Scouts. "But now life is easier, thanks to the irrigation pumps set up by the Ladakh Ecological Development Group." The narrow valley of the …
AS GUJARAT gears up to face another summer of water riots in the cities, the farmers of Shankerpura village in Panchmahal district will continue to irrigate their fields: they have their lift irrigation systems, run collectively and set up with help from the Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (SWDF). Shankerpura …
AVARICIOUS contractors, with the active connivance of forest officials and the local people, have indiscriminately felled teak trees in each of the 412 ha of the Mahadapur reserve forest. According to V B Salunke of GGP, at least 2 cartloads of teak wood from the forest has been taken to …
WHAT group irrigation management has done to Mahadapur is what water does to crops -- made it grow and flower. For the first time ever, the Kolam tribals of Mahadapur, an obscure village in the tribal-dominated Yavatmal district in southeast Maharashtra, harvested wheat and vegetables last year. This was a …
SPANNING 9 chapters, Tushaar Shah's book focuses on a very specific but vital component of India's agricultural development -- groundwater markets (GWMs) and its effect on the economy, society and environment. The book brings together the author's research on GWMs since 1983 -- based mainly in Gujarat -- though a …
TELANGWADI village in the Solapur district of western Maharashtra is located on undulating and rocky terrain and receives little rainfall. Farmers who are lucky enough to have irrigation cultivate inferior cereals like jowar, bajra and maize and fruits like pomegranates. This barren area is the setting for the success story …
The presidents of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, along with the Russian deputy prime minister have agreed to set up a joint fund to save what was once the world's fourth-largest freshwater lake. The use of water for irrigating rice and cotton has greatly depleted the Aral Sea, which …
THE ANTI-GOLF movement is gaining momentum almost in tandem with the game's popularity. Anti-golf activists see the sport as "the most serious environmental problem in the world". Tricia Barnett, a British conservationist and supporter of the Global Anti-Golf Movement (GAGM) (Down To Earth, August 15, 1993), thinks the campaign has …
OUT OF the total 303.42 million ha of land that make up India, 136.18 million ha were categorised in 1987-88 as net sown area and of this, only 43.05 ha receives irrigation. The sources of irrigation, according to official records, are canals, tubewells, tanks, wells and other sources, a classification …
AMIDST the euphoric atmosphere, a time bomb is ticking away in semi-arid West Asia. On September 13, Israel signed the Declaration of Principles with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and followed it up, in less than 24 hours, with the signing of the Common Agenda with Jordan. Though this has …
In a severe indictment of the World Bank's (WB) record of resettlement of people affected by its projects in India, the bank's own Operations Evaluation Division (OED) has recommended that funding of projects involving forcible relocation of people should be stopped. OED says a February 1980 policy makes the bank …
"ALTHOUGH India has built many dams that are engineering marvels, traditional water-harvesting methods are still the lifeline for most villages," says A V Chaturvedi, Jehanabad district development commissioner. He cites the example of Motepur dam, an earthen structure that is built every two years over the Punpun river. The Motepur …
LONG BEFORE Indians run out of land or air, they will run out of water -- unless, of course, they learn to make judicious use of this precious resource. The Mayurakshi river basin in West Bengal and the Sabarmati basin in Gujarat represent some of the serious problems water resource …
THE CAUVERY, one of the major interstate rivers of south India, has been both a blessing and a curse to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu: it has helped farmers but also caused discord. Irrigation from the Cauvery has been more developed in Tamil Nadu than Karnataka. The reason is geological: Whereas …
For 50 years the Mettur dam was completed. Tamil Nadu farmers used more than 75 per cent of the Cauvery waters, which was largely responsible for the tremendous escalation in rice cultivation in the state. The crisis, however, set in after Karnataka began developing its irrigation system based on the …
THE MAN who moved the Supreme Court in ???? to constitute a tribunal to solve the dispute over the Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was S Ranganath, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers' Association. Says Ranganath, "A legal solution had to be found. We had no …
AS THE Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lurches from one deadlock to another, water resources experts in India are even more disturbed at the prospect of a larger crisis. The "resource hysteria" generated by the Cauvery tangle may just be a precursor to similar "flashpoints" in India, …
Two British consultants have developed an underwater pump that can irrigate riverside fields without using fuel or causing pollution. The prize-winning turbine is easy to construct and can work continuously (Ceres 141, Vol 26, No 3). Originally designed to harness the energy of the Nile to irrigate the desert areas …
ISRAELI potato growers have dug in for a fight to the finish against McDonald's of Big Mac hamburger fame, which is due to open its first outlet in Israel outside Tel Aviv in autumn. McDonald's says it wants to import frozen fries because irrigation has made the wholesale prices of …
