Featured Articles
June 24, 2021
East Kolkata Wetlands – fast turning death traps for aquatic ecosystems?
Freshwater ecosystems in India are known to harbour rich biodiversity, but their health is being increasingly challenged in recent years. And the East Kolkata Wetlands are no exception!
Fishermen use wastewater from Kolkata to rear fish (Image Source: India Water Portal)
June 4, 2021
Not all heroes wear capes, some fight amongst us
Meet these real-life heroes, who with their consistent and tireless efforts created an impact and turned their local areas into examples to follow.
Meet the water warriors who made a significant change in their own unique way (Image Source: Environment Club)
April 8, 2021
Conservation of water commons through community fishery
The village institution collectively framed rules for the governance and management of these water commons
The efforts have resulted in the revival of the ponds. (Image: FES)
March 22, 2021
Sheroes: A tribute to women who value water
Beating odds, women water warriors deepen their work on water
Rural women believe in the power of ‘water continuity’ or having sustained and intergenerational access to water resources (Image: Romit Sen)
February 1, 2021
Bengaluru lakes, in crisis!
Urban wetlands are increasingly under threat in cities such as Bengaluru! Community participation and better planning, management and monitoring of urban spaces is the need of the hour!
Ulsoor lake, Bengaluru (Image Source: Subhashish Panigrahi via Wikimedia Commons)
December 19, 2019
Only one out of five river basins in the country resilient to climate change: Study
News this week
Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Goa’s mangrove cover increases while Sunderbans’ shrank: ISFR 2021
News this fortnight Swati Bansal posted 1 week ago

Goa’s mangrove cover increases while Sunderbans’ shrank, reports India State of the Forest Report (ISFR) 2021
Mangroves in Sunderbans (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Activists urge Chhattisgarh CM to rethink expansion of mining in Hasdeo Arand forest
News this fortnight Swati Bansal posted 1 month ago

Reconsider decision to expand mining in Hasdeo Arand forest: Activists to Chhattisgarh CM
A devastated forest at a coal mining site. Photo for representation only (Image source: IWP Flickr photos)
Indore is still very much water minus
Need to abandon costly centralised systems of wastewater management and raise awareness about decentralised systems Amita Bhaduri posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

Recently, the city of Indore was declared the first water plus city in India under the Swachh Sarvekshan programme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for its ostensibly exemplary wastewater management (Hindustan Times, 2021).
Water harvesters cleaning up water hyacinth from the rivers in Indore (Image: Rahul Banerjee)
Ecosystem services of traditional water bodies
Empirical evidence from West Bengal Amita Bhaduri posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

People obtain a variety of benefits, both tangible and intangible, from ecosystems. The complex and dynamic interactions between ecosystems and people have resulted in exponential rise of ecosystem services research in recent decade.
Households living close to tanks pursue a variety of livelihood activities based on resources available in tanks for their sustenance (Image: Amitabha Gupta, Wikimedia Commons)
Mangroves - Wetlands or forests?
Mangroves were treated and managed as forests in colonial times, although they are much similar to wetlands. This led to extensive degradation of mangrove ecosystems in India. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 2 months ago

Have you noticed short trees or bushes along coastlines with a dense tangle of roots hanging out that makes them look like they are standing on stilts? These are mangroves. Mangroves can be trees, shrubs, ferns and palms that occupy the boundary between the land and the sea.
Mangrove forest at Pichavaram, Tamil Nadu (Image Source: Shankaran Murugan via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Jal Jeevan Mission App and Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh launched
Policy matters this fortnight Swati Bansal posted 3 months 2 weeks ago

PM Modi launches the Jal Jeevan Mission app and Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh 
An overhead tank in Tamil Nadu that supplies water to a village (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Northeastern states witness highest rates of desertification
News this fortnight Swati Bansal posted 4 months 2 weeks ago

Desertification is accelerating in several northeastern Indian states
Loss of green cover is increasing in the country (Image source: IWP Flickr photos)
Desilting their way to water sufficiency
Augmenting tank storage has good impact on the livelihood options of the poor and the marginalised. Amita Bhaduri posted 4 months 2 weeks ago

For over 1,200 livestock of Cheemanahalli, located in the Abludu Gram Panchayat of Sidlaghatta Block, Chikkaballapur District, the village’s cattle pond is the only source of drinking water.
The village pond after the rehabilitation (Image: FES)
Nainital’s water woes: Every drop of rain counts
Nainital, a burgeoning hill town with a huge growing population is faced with water supply issues. Adoption of the practice of rainwater harvesting can lead to a paradigm shift towards better utilisation of the town’s natural water resources. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months 1 week ago

Nainital, the jewel of Uttarakhand’s Kumaun region is one of the most popular tourist destinations in northern India.
Naini lake, a natural freshwater body, quenches the thirst of the town (Image: Sanjay Bora)
India now has 46 Ramsar sites as four new wetlands add to the list
News this fortnight Swati Bansal posted 5 months 1 week ago

Four more wetlands get the Ramsar tag
Wetlands are an essential component of our ecosystem (Image source: IWP Flickr photos)
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