Punjab’s groundwater stress drowns in election noise
“It is easy to point fingers at farmers in Punjab for air pollution from stubble burning. But what about the pollution in rivers? Will people living in cities take responsibility…
Water News
India’s growing solar power programme could leave behind a trail of waste
Solar power may promise a bright future for India’s energy requirements, but behind the sheen is a growing mountain of waste. While the national government is pushing an ambitious solar…
Marine plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, says biodiversity report
Around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades and more than ever before in human history, according to a recent report. The unsustainable…
Traditional knowledge to the rescue in water scarcity-hit Assam
Sometimes, particularly during monsoons, the day starts around 4 a.m., earlier than usual, for Rati Ranjan Mondal in Assam’s Nagrijuli village on the Indo-Bhutan border. Mondal wakes up, after a…
March of industrialisation tramples Kutch’s coastal ecology
“Like fish trapped in a net,” Jam Ismael Ali smiled at the irony of the simile drawn to explain his own situation. One among the few remaining Pagadia fishermen in…
Jal Sahelis quench the thirst of parched villages in Bundelkhand
It is just the onset of summer and mercury is already touching 42 degrees Celsius in Bundelkhand. Water has evaporated from most rivers and ponds. Tube wells and handpumps have…
Politics muddies waters in parched Bundelkhand
It is just the beginning of summer. The mercury in Lalitpur — one of the drought-prone districts of Bundelkhand, a region divided between the two states of Uttar Pradesh (UP)…
Will agriculture distress in Saurashtra benefit the opposition?
Caught between the two mainstream parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress, the farmers of Saurashtra are an angry lot this election season. They are waiting for…
Narmada, the forgotten river, is not on anyone’s agenda
Sanjaybhai Machhi, 33, a resident of Bharuch in Gujarat, was a fisherman until a few years ago. He would earn enough from fishing in the Narmada river, to sustain his…
[Commentary] Looking beyond the Chennai city, at the Chennai watershed
It is an era of rapid urban expansion that ignores sustainable urban planning principles until disaster strikes. The city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu is no exception to this rule.…
