Amita Bhaduri

The national conclave on food held on March 15, 2019 at New Delhi saw experts urge policy changes to promote sustainable food production especially organic farming as well as regulations to reduce misuse of antibiotics and pesticides.

The migratory bird season is in full swing and avid bird watchers have flocked to Surajpur wetland to sight the charismatic Common Teal, Red-crested Pochard, Ferruginous Pochard, Bar-headed Goose, Greylag Goose, Northern Shoveler and Gadwall.

The decline in public, as well as private investment, has led to a slowdown in the growth of agriculture and allied sectors in the last five years. The crisis in the agrarian sector had intensified over the last few years. It is now the political talking point with many farmers' rallies, marches and protests being held all over the country.

People of Ramra, a village in the Kairana block of Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh have warm recollections of river Katha that joins the Yamuna below Ramra. Mustaquim Mallah, a 30-year old river conservationist recalls how his grandfather held many pleasant childhood memories of the river. "My great grandfather fished in this river.

What are sediments? Why do rivers carry sediment? Where does it all go? What happens to the sediment along the way? Have human actions modified the way a river works or carries sediment? How can sediments in rivers and reservoirs be managed? Here is all the information that you need to know about sediment and its management better.

As we enter the narrow lanes of Muskan gali, after wading through the unruly traffic in a rapidly urbanising Muzaffarpur, we are greeted by Noorjehan outside her house. Between the gali and the main road, the city has grown. It has a population of 3.5 lakhs as per 2011 Census. This has risen now to five lakhs, say estimates.

Until a few decades ago, the Ganga flowed with gay abandon and descended with rapidity into the plains. Today the waters have withdrawn from its banks and downstream of the hydropower and irrigation projects that have hindered its flow, the Ganga is totally dry.

Sikri is a small village that lies 65 km north-west of Bharatpur on the Alwar road. The village used to depend on a traditional irrigation system that assured water throughout the year. A local saying related to the water availability at Sikri goes thus: Lakh daal le chittri, jay rahoongi Sikri (You may put lakhs of fetters to stop it, but the waters will still reach Sikri).

A new study, Mahanadi: Coal Rich, Water-Stressed sheds light on how both Odisha and Chhattisgarh have locked horns over the distribution of waters of the Mahanadi river. The 851-km-long river originates in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh, flows through the state and then Odisha before joining the Bay of Bengal at Odisha’s coast.

River Paondhoi is best known today as a sewer running through Saharanpur city. Originally, however, it was an important source of drinking water for the city. In its heyday, the water of the river ran ankle deep, just enough to wash one’s feet. People coming into the city would wash their feet in the river giving it the name, Paondhoi.