Amita Bhaduri

This bilingual book written in Hindi and English appearing side-by-side titled “Bagawat par majboor Mithila ki Kamla nadi” and “Kamla: River and the people on collision course” respectively attempts to study the irrigation and flood control schemes that were taken up in the Kamla basin following independence and depicts how people have been left in a blind alley.  

A discussion was organised on a new book by Tom Wooten and Utpal Sandesara - "No one had a tongue to speak" that spectacularly reconstructs the 1979 Machhu dam disaster in Gujarat, one of history’s worst disasters. The meeting was organised by SANDRP at India International Centre, New Delhi on 30^th July, 2012.

Ghazala Shahabuddin’s recent talk on 30^th August, 2012 at IIC, New Delhi focused on the malaise underlying India’s dominant conservation paradigm, which is for the most part one of top-down control and exclusion.

The panelists included Himanshu Thakkar (South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People), Manu Bhatnagar (Head, Natural Heritage Division, INTACH) and A K Bajaj (Former Chairman, Central Water Commission) while Satish, Toxics Link moderated the discussion. A short film by TERI - “Water ignites life and hope” was also shown.

Introduction

The lecture dealt with 'Perceptions of a river, life and the idea of floods in politics and commerce', with the metaphor of control over rivers dating back to the times of Sir Arthur Cotton, who built the Dowlaiswaram anicut on the Godavari in 1863.

India like many other developing countries has focused its agricultural policies on increasing agricultural production to meet food security.

Umendra Dutt speaking about Kheti Virasat Mission

‘Poor indeed is the garden in which birds find no home’ - Abram L. Urban

Introduction