2019 was the year of elections. Starting with the biggest festival of democracy - the elections to the parliament - India witnessed elections every few months at various levels of…
Highlighting the Indian government’s slow progress on water-related works, a parliamentary panel in its latest report has expressed disappointment over the pace of flagship projects like Namami Gange programme and…
Twenty-seven-year-old Chandra, a house help in Chennai, does not know much about deficient rainfall, rainwater harvesting or the city's degraded water bodies. All she knows is that once in two…
Using treated wastewater for irrigation, while a practical way to conserve water, could negatively impact soil quality and further, human health. Given the risks, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)…
Sitting in his workshop in Ajrakhpur near Bhuj in Gujarat, India's westernmost state, Sufian Khatri gingerly holds a pale-yellow, naturally-dyed piece of sample cloth. Animal and floral motifs in a…
What lurks underground, is miniature and resembles bhujia, a popular Indian snack, when preserved? A very special fish called the Bhujia eel loach. Bhujia eel loach (Pangio bhujia), a new…
India’s financial capital, Mumbai, and the national capital, Delhi, are the country’s top two metro cities when it comes to solid waste generated per day. Together, it is estimated, they…
Clearing the final hurdle in the expansion of the capacity of the Kaiga Atomic power plant in Karwar area of Karnataka, an expert wildlife panel led by the Indian government’s…
In June this year, many parts of Chennai witnessed acts of violence. Neighbours turned against each other, there were reports of physical assault and even offices and schools were shut…
Legislations by Haryana and Punjab governments to save groundwater seems to have had an unexpected outcome – an increase in winter time air pollution in northern India, suggests a latest…
The over-withdrawal of groundwater for agriculture is estimated to be one of the reasons that groundwater is a fast-depleting resource in India. Now, an expert committee of the government’s environment…
Few months ahead of the legislative assembly elections in Haryana, efforts to revive the extinct Saraswati, a river from the ancient Hindu scriptures the Vedas, are back in focus. The…
More than 100 million people around the world today are exposed to dangerously high levels of naturally-occurring groundwater arsenic in sedimentary aquifers. However, the ultimate source of this stubborn bulk-arsenic…
On the morning of February 21, 2018, Manvir Singh, 32, a farmer from Andana village in Sangrur district of Punjab, left early from home for his farm. When Manju, his…
A significant part of India is facing water scarcity, while a latest government report holds that India is not a water deficit country but that the scarcity is on account…
It is noon and the scorching heat of Chennai’s sun hits across S. Punitha’s face. She has just filled her first pot for the day from a hand pump in…
Expressing concern at the neglect of community water resources that are increasingly polluted, India’s top pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), has now come out with a set…
The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has announced the launch of Nal Se Jal (Water From Tap), a poll-promise from its 2019 manifesto, to ensure piped water…
The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching at Raipur locality in Jadavpur, off south Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is…
Can a change in name get the Indian government’s water ministry to become more efficient? Will a tweak in organisational structure give India’s varied water issues – water scarcity, overexploited…
