Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
the column width dedicated to rain in the mainstream print media has hit an all-time high. A few days ago, tv news reporters with that special ability to capture (and re-create) frenzy planted themselves on Kerala's beaches, not chasing a vacationing prime minister but waiting for the monsoon. Urban India …
Fifty per cent of India’s dams are concentrated in Maharashtra, but only 17 per cent of the agricultural land in the state gets irrigated. The irrigation department (id) presides over an unwieldy irrigation system that is in a state of acute disrepair. And, the government of Maharashtra (gom) has been …
The Swajaldhara and similar schemes focus on constructing water supply installations before ensuring that there is somebody to manage them and pay for their operation. The urgency to provide safe drinking water most often leads to bypassing existing local institutions of resource management. The result is well known: the expected …
the timing, and background, of the recently concluded 3rd World Water Forum in Japan ensured that water be seen through the lens of conflict. Most debates centred around
Excessive heat and little light is how I would describe discussions on 'privatisation' of water. Protagonists say this is the magic bullet that will deliver safe water for all. Antagonists insist the private sector is interested only in profit, not in public good. Their claim that "Ganga is being sold …
Central Uttar Pradesh (up) is quite literally on shaky ground. Land subsidence has been reported from several districts of the region, including Fatehpur, Farrukhabad, Kannauj and Unnao. Alarmingly, the culprit is neither seismic nor mining activity, but excessive groundwater extraction. This despite these districts lying in the Gangetic plain and …
Oscar Olivera of Bolivia is something of a mascot for anti-globalisation movements across the world. During the recent Asian Social Forum meeting in Hyderabad, Olivera spoke in Spanish. And in spite of the tediousness of translated messages, his dozen-odd speeches found eager listeners in the 15,000 participants at the meeting. …
Intention and execution are not always related. That's the Swajaldhara lesson. Swajaldhara is a national-level rural water supply scheme that seeks to put in place a people-oriented, decentralised and demand-driven water management regime. To this end, it aims at utilising pachayati raj institutions across the country, empowering them in the …
In theory, rainwater harvesting can drought-proof every village in India. In theory, drought-proofing requires strong and functioning village-level institutions. Travelling through Chattisgarh state
Bathing daily is now a punishable offence in three gram panchayats of Andhra Pradesh. The village bodies in Mellacheruvu mandal of Nalgonda district have ruled that villagers will bathe once in four days and wash clothes once every 10 days to save water. Those who defy the diktat will be …
Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. The Union government usually responds by complaining about truant rains and doles out funds in an arbitrary manner. As an alternative, I propose a nationwide watershed development programme through the statutory …
Even as citypeople all over India were finalising their Christmas party-hopping plans, a celebration of a very different kind galvanised Junagadh district, Gujarat. From December 23 to 26, 2002, thousands of villagers from villages in Keshod, Maliya, Memdarda and Mangrol talukas went on a padayatra (footmarch). Their mission? Sensitising and …
on december 25, 2002, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee unveiled an ambitious scheme to provide drinking water to all villages in the country by April 2004. The project, called
The metro railway project has brought in its train a problem on another front: management of water. As digging proceeds on a daily basis, gallons of sub-soil water have to be extracted and disposed of. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (dmrc) has made elaborate arrangements not to waste the water …
For the first time in two decades, Australia is reeling under a water crunch. Restrictions on water use have been imposed on Melbourne residents. Environment minister Sherryl Garbutt has directed the people to use watering systems sparingly during the day and reduce washing their cars with hoses. Empty pools and …
Bawana's bucolic settings have all but made way for Asia's largest industrial hub. The sea change that this northwest Delhi locality is undergoing may, however, leave the area's aquifer depleted and polluted. This is likely to have a ripple effect because Bawana is projected as a future groundwater source for …
Water is a critical issue in Afghanistan. The country receives less than 300 millimetres of rain each year and shares all its river basins with neighbouring countries. Twenty-three years of conflict have left its water infrastructure system shattered. And drought over the last five years aggravated the situation. Today, only …
In India, there is an inextricable link between water and politics. This was very much in evidence recently when the opposition walked out in the Karnataka assembly over the proposed privatisation of Bangalore’s water supply system. Water tariff had earlier been hiked steeply in the city to pave the way …
