Madhya Pradesh

Rivers are revered and considered holy since times immemorial in India and mass bathing in some rivers is an age-old ritual. A holy dip and a holy sip of the river waters are considered to be a highly purifying. But is the dip really cleansing at all when almost all the rivers in India are known to be highly polluted?

Indore once again tops the Swachh Survekshan 2020 in the cleanest city category

Nested amongst the Satprura hills lies Kapoti, a village in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. This region is known as Baiga Chak and is inhabited by Baigas, a vulnerable tribal group. Following a simple lifestyle, Baigas have been a self-provisioning, self-determining and nearly self-sufficient community residing in the resource rich highland forest regions in small hamlets for generations. The dense forest, its flora and fauna and water are the main sources of sustenance for this community.

Drought conditions are not new to Bundelkhand. The acute situation now is a convergence of three types of droughts – meteorological, agricultural and hydrological - cumulatively coinciding as witnessed in Nunagar village in Panna district, Madhya Pradesh. We saw hundreds of vessels queuing up at the panchayat well. A closer look revealed that it is not well water that was being collected here, but people were lining up to fetch water from a piped source that is released to the well.

Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed multiple challenges in different geographies, especially for the vulnerable groups living in areas that already have existing issues of water and food security. India Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM) Foundation has worked in such areas for many years to resolve challenges around water contamination by strengthening governance systems and raising awareness.

Covid-19 will have major implications in rural areas where the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), a non-profit organisation has been working towards conservation of natural resources through collective action of local communities. Experience indicates that the complete lockdown to contain the spread of the disease has resulted in loss of rural incomes. The risk of spread of the virus too has increased with migrants returning to villages.

Karnataka allowed to implement Kalasa-Banduri project

I am in the middle of nowhere, out on a field visit to understand how fluoride, a deadly contaminant in groundwater has been afflicting people in some of the worst affected villages in Nalgonda, Telangana. I am thirsty as hell and would do anything to find a seemingly elusive little glass of water, but I can’t.

Restless as I am, with my thoughts running wild, I get out of the car and start walking.

Among 22 cities in India, Mumbai has lost the maximum number of wetlands: WISA