Articles

Revival of Ganga wetlands gets government's attention

Policy matters this week

Receding Ganga river at Sangam (Image source: IWP Flickr photos)

Study detects high levels of arsenic in cooked rice in Bihar

Need to remove arsenic from the food chain and not just drinking water in endemic areas

Median excess lifetime cancer risk of 2 per 10,000 from food arsenic exposure in Bihar. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Managing groundwater demand: the way forward

Substituting groundwater irrigation by canal irrigation will not help in maintaining the current levels of food production in India. Managing groundwater demand will, finds a study.

Groundwater, a valuable resource! (Image Source: India Water Portal)

Fluoride and nitrate - a health problem in Anantapur

High fluoride and nitrate cause dental, skeletal fluorosis and methemoglobinemia in infants and stomach cancer in adults

Non carcinogenic risks for adults are more prone to risk greater than those children and infants in the study area (Image: India Water Portal)

Digital tool to monitor groundwater

Women in Rajasthan use a groundwater monitoring tool to record water levels and promote water literacy

Women use an open source groundwater monitoring tool that enables collection of water level data of wells and its collation on a web platform for easy access by all. (Image: FES)

Baravas - Unique water harvesting structures of Maharashtra

Baravas, the unique water harvesting structures of Maharashtra continue to stand the test of time. Urgent efforts need to be made to conserve them and learn from them!

A barav from Limb village in Satara district, Maharashtra (Image Source: Aarti Kelkar Khambete)

Dams and distress in the Himalayas!

Hydropower projects and compensatory afforestation plantations are spelling doom for the fragile Himalayan forest ecosystems. Urgent action is the need of the hour!

100 MW Tidong-I project, Kinnaur HP (Image Source: Manu Moudgil)

MARVI: Securing groundwater supplies through engaging village communities

Improving decision-making for sustainable groundwater use

Designing participatory processes to assist village level discovery and implementation of solutions for sustaining groundwater use and improved livelihoods (Image: MARVI)

Water: Governance challenges and suggested tools

Supply-side solutions are creating havoc for the already disadvantaged and marginalised.

Dahanu, a green zone enjoyed special protection since 1991 (Image: nathview.blogspot.com)

India gets its first wetland conservation centre

Policy matters this week

Deepor beel, Assam (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Disaster strikes Uttarakhand, yet again

News this week

Flash Floods in Chamoli, Uttarakhand (Image Source: India.com)

Living glasshouses - in the water!

Diatoms, that abound in freshwater ecosystems not only generate 25 percent of oxygen we breathe, but also help save freshwater bodies by detecting pollution!

Diatom (Nitzschia sp. - a pollution indicator) along with other algae from a stream (Image Source: Karthick Balasubramanian)

Budget 2021: MGNREGA allocation insufficient

Budget inadequate to meet the work demand, says PAEG

Migrant workers are left ailing both in cities and in villages, with no recourse or security. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Budget 2021: Environmental conservation or business as usual

The budget has given environmental conservation issues a slip, say experts

There is a need to estimate the ecological footprint of all activities. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Need to revamp developmental planning in the Uttarakhand hills

The havoc points to the faultlines in the developmental planning of ecologically sensitive areas.

The glacial burst in Chamoli is nature’s way of telling the state not to play havoc with the local ecology. (Image: Down to Earth)

The Uttarakhand disaster: A warning to be better prepared!

The Uttarakhand disaster reaffirms earlier warnings on the fragility of the Himalayan region calling for more careful planning and preparedness in the future!