Aarti Kelkar Khambete

Unsustainable sandmining practices continue to be rampant in India. This has not only threatened the river ecosystems, but also led to commodification of river sand, a product in high demand in the construction industry. The high profits involved have turned sand mining into a highly competitive business with the sand mafia dominating the scene.

While water sector actors from samaaj, sarkaar and bazaar have been working for decades on programmes that address water security issues in the country, making a sustainable impact at scale has continued to be a challenge.

How have watershed development projects fared in India? Have they helped in better distribution of benefits among the poor and marginalised? Why is it important to talk about watershed development at this juncture?

This book by Dr Eshwer Kale dwells on these questions and explores issues around social exclusion among resource-poor people in watershed development projects.

Kashmir’s glaciers are melting at frightening rates. Kolahoi glacier, the largest glacier in Kashmir Himalayas, has lost 23 percent area since 1962 and has fragmented into smaller parts!

Glaciers, frozen rivers of ice

Urban India, in the grip of the pandemic

Come monsoons and vector borne diseases start making headlines every year in many parts of India, especially mosquito borne diseases like dengue, malaria, chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis.

What are vector borne diseases

While the monsoon has set in, this is a time when vector borne diseases could become rampant, and neglect of preventive measures could lead to a spike in these diseases. 

What are vector borne diseases? Here's a primer that explains them in detail. 

Water fleas are small crustaceans widely found in varied aquatic habitats. They are very sensitive to changes in the water quality of water bodies such as rivers and streams that they inhabit.

Anand Jagtap, ex Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the winner of the Lingaraja Memorial Award and a PhD scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai has been associated with the Slum Sanitation Programme (SSP) undertaken by MCGM with support from the World Bank since 1997 to 2005.

Deane De Menezes is the founder of Red is the New Green (RING) – an award winning social enterprise working towards reducing the social stigma attached to menstruation.