Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Naresh Kumar Vs Government of NCT of Delhi & Others dated 13/05/2025. The matter is related to illegal extraction of groundwater in Manakpura, Delhi by the water supply mafia. According to the complainant, one Hemant has illegally drilled a borewell …
Who does the water under the ground belong to? Who has the right to exploit it? Are there limits on what can be extracted? Till three months ago, the answers to such questions were simple. Groundwater under Indian law belongs to the person who owns the land. In other words, …
The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on pesticide residues in and safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages is out. It agrees there were pesticide residues in soft drinks the Centre for Science and Environment had tested, so clearly posing a health hazard. But more …
At one point in the epic Mahabharata, the pandavs and kauravs go to warfare school. Amid thick forests, they train hard. Then, the time comes when they must leave. Yudhister, the eldest pandav, gifts the space as guru dakshina to his guru, Dronacharya. In time, there came up a town …
46 cities in China are sinking due to excessive pumping out of groundwater. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Land and Resources, rapid depletion of groundwater has lead to the soil sinking below the cities and produced more than 100 massive tunnels covering a total area of …
two recent directives of the Kerala High Court (hc) have further vindicated the Perumatty Grama Panchayat's stand in its face-off with the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (hcbpl). On December 16, Justice Balakrishnan Nair of the hc told hcbpl to close down the borewells at its Plachimada plant in Kerala's …
There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical. Still, the extent of irresponsibility never fails to surprise. Some months ago we did a study on pesticides in bottled water. We were really looking at pesticides …
Judgement of the Kerala High Court in the case of Perumatty Grama Panchayat vs State of Kerala dated 16/12/2003 (Coca-Cola groundwater exploitation case).
Beneath the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip is a groundwater crisis that's rapidly depriving Palestinians of drinking water. Israel and the Palestinian authority share the Mediterranean Coastal Aquifer, which is now contaminated with salts, nitrates and boron. But now, a solution may be at hand. A multilateral team of …
I t's not economic and political challenges alone that the eu countries plan to face together. They also intend putting up a united front against the growing threat of pollution. The European Commission recently adopted a proposal for a new directive to combat groundwater pollution. As per this, it would …
A law enacted to check the illegal sale of water in villages located in the northern parts of Goa has proved to be a damp squib. Tanker operators are openly flouting the state's Groundwater Regulation Act, which was passed in 2002 and notified in 2003. The main objective of the …
april 30, 2003: 158 gram panchayat (gp) presidents of Karur district in Tamil Nadu are up in arms over a district collector's order. It has taken away their right to administer the food for work scheme in the district. Worse still, it has conferred this right to the panchayat union …
A few days ago, most of India reeled under drought. Cities thirsted for water. Karnataka's chief minister S M Krishna - seeing water supply in his software capital reduced to once in three days - announced desperate measures, such as prayer. The entire country seemed to await the first emancipatory …
Groundwater sustains almost 60 per cent of the irrigated land in India. Most districts in India today have larger shares of irrigated land under groundwater irrigation than under surface-water irrigation. This ominous change in water use patterns in India has been extremely rapid since the 1970s. Extensive groundwater usage has …
But not a drop to drink. The heat wave has already killed more than a thousand people all over India. Taps in major metros are running dry. Water bodies are evaporating. Groundwater supplies are running low. At a time like this, who wouldn't fall for a newspaper ad that promises …
function openspmap(){ var popurl="html/20030430_42map.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=470") } At a time when river networking is being touted as a panacea for the entire country’s water woes, the tide of opinion in Karnataka is turning against the concept. The dissent is moored to a proposed local scheme to divert Nethravathi river. The issue …
It is a story about underground water: when the nectar turns into poison. When a daily task of drinking water from the handpump becomes the source of crippling disease and death. This is not a "natural' disaster
function openmap(){ var popurl="html/20030415_map.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=650,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } Welcome to Wah india, a hazy land born of perfidy and malicious grace. Spread over territory co-extensive with 19 states in India, it is both traceable and unknown. Its physical geography, for instance, is quite virtual: Wah india keeps getting discovered; its expanding contours …
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of massive state investment in rural water development. Not only had more land to be brought under irrigation, but also drinking water supplied. These decades saw an exponential rise in the number of privately-owned pumpsets and wells, even as investment in public wells …
