Every rupee spent on the National Monsoon Mission (NMM) and on augmenting high-performance computing used for weather modelling has returned ₹50 in economic benefits to poor farmers and fishing families, a report said. The report, released by the New Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), showed that ₹551-crore …
Conscious of the importance of fisheries and of the high dependence of millions of fisherpeople on fisheries, and of the fact that the marine and coastal ecosystems are rich spawning and breeding grounds, and provide vital coastal protection benefits. Being concerned about the livelihood problems encountered by at least ten …
The most audible opponents of the Dhamra Port project have been conservation organisations such as Greenpeace, turtle biologists and environmentalists from across the country and beyond. This port project along with several coastal infrastructure projects has been opposed by fisherfolk organisations who believe that these projects negatively affect the traditional …
The question is whom to manage and what to regulate An official of the environment ministry said that the new notification is better because it is site specific.
Most coastal states, except Orissa, against the notification; environment ministry will take a call in June 2009 The ball is now in the environment ministry
At the public consultation meeting in Mumbai on August 19, about 30 people spoke out against the CMZ notification. N D Koli, general secretary of National Fishworkers
M S Swaminathan, chairperson of the expert committee to review and make recommendations with regard to implementation of Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 1991, spoke to Down To Earth on the guiding principles of the committee
Have you noticed how the mighty automobile industry in the US is beginning to sound like the now infamous tobacco industry at the time of its collapse, taking cover behind the people it employed to whitewash its inefficiency and perhaps its sheer inappropriateness? The tobacco industry, in its last days …
Earlier this year, I called the Union budget myopic (see Down To Earth, March 31, 2008). Let me reiterate why. The Union budget did not take into account the fact the world was beginning to face new challenges, all of which were devastating, and related. One, the rising cost of …
This paper discusses the decline in fish catch and the potential threat that this poses for the 4.5 lakh strong fisher population of Orissa . It also outlines the solution -- sustainable fisheries management -- which will safeguard the livelihoods of the traditional fishing population, while by default, reducing turtle …
A few years ago I wrote about a textile town called Pali, in Rajasthan, which had completely toxified its seasonal river Bandi with industrial discharge. Then, I said the real story was not about pollution but the anger of farmers whose agricultural lands were destroyed because of effluents, whose well …
Dr Francis Day, the First Inspector General of Fisheries in India, stated: "Our fishermen are a very miserable lot of people and extremely poor." This view is no longer tenable as the Koli community has certainly advanced a great deal although it is not up to the mark. A preliminary …
This year, for once, the devastating floods of Bihar seem to have touched us. Last year, when the same region was reeling under what was said to be the worst floods in living history, we simply did not know. Media had flashed a few images, but it was more of …
Jambudwip is a tiny dot in the Bay of Bengal. A few years ago, it hit headlines when wildlife activists dragged fishermen, who used the landmass to dry their fish, to the Supreme Court. A case was filed regarding
