Amita Bhaduri

Amita Bhaduri
Pumping up hopes the solar way
What will it take for the Haryana government to switch 7 lakh groundwater pumps to solar powered options so it can lower its energy footprint and contain losses in the energy sector?
Posted on 28 Jan, 2016 03:29 PM

Haryana's agriculture sector uses seven lakh tubewells, most of which are connected to the grid as the state has a policy of providing highly subsidised electricity to farmers costing Rs. 6200 crore a year. As a result, groundwater exploitation is rampant.

Better incentives needs to be provided to farmers to use solar pumps for tubewells in Haryana
Alarm bells ring for Delhi’s groundwater
The city's old wells and baodis are running dry, and the Yamuna is getting more polluted by the day. Where is Delhi's water going to come from when groundwater levels are also dropping? Posted on 25 Jan, 2016 01:19 PM

Delhi, home to 16.75 million people, is in the grip of a major water crisis. Statistics by the Delhi Jal Board for the year 2011 suggest that the water deficit stands at about 250 million gallons per day with the supply being 830 million gallons per day.

Residents say they are forced to flout the groundwater extraction norms with illegal groundwater pumps in Narela in North-west Delhi due to insufficient and poor quality of water supplied.
Ken-Betwa river gets some respite
Statutory clearance not given for the much touted Ken-Betwa model link project of the Interlinking of Rivers programme due to extreme social and environmental concerns.
Posted on 08 Jan, 2016 01:03 PM

In December 2015, more than forty years after it was conceived, the Government was set to launch India’s ambitious 30-link river interlinking project linking 37 rivers.

View of Betwa river (Source: Manual Menal, Wikimedia Commons)
From toilet to tap: Is that the future of drinking water?
Singapore's done it, and so has Orange County USA. Even astronauts do it. Drink recycled wastewater, that is! So will it become a reality in India?
Posted on 09 Dec, 2015 12:47 PM

An article in India Today three years ago was titled ‘Beware Delhi!

Yogendra Singh, an operator, explains how the 'Toilet to tap' plant functions
Choppy waters and a calm river voyager
Emmanuel Theophilus was awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' at the India Rivers Day 2015 for his valiant and untiring effort to safeguard the integrity of the Mahakali River.
Posted on 06 Dec, 2015 12:31 PM

The epic voyage--Nadisutra--along the Ganga may have been the high point of Emmanuel Theophilus’s recent work, but there have been many more peaks and valleys for this fervent mountaineer cum ecologist. Theo lives in a remote village near Munsiyari in Uttarakhand.

Theophilus being awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' (Source: Kush Sethi)
Undisposed toxic waste still haunts Bhopal’s groundwater
A report says that many locals in Bhopal are dealing with “high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness".
Posted on 02 Dec, 2015 03:06 PM

“When cool air blows over the city and it rains in Bhopal bringing welcome respite to its people, I fear that toxic waste is spilling into its groundwater”, says Rajesh Kumar who shows me around the 68-acre plant site of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL).

A poem that describes how the city was left destroyed is written on a wall near a memorial for those killed & disabled by the Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984
Sustainable practices in slash-and-burn lands in Nagaland
Jhum or shifting cultivation has been criticised regarding its ecological and economic impacts. UNDP takes on the challenge by introducing integrated farm development practices.
Posted on 01 Nov, 2015 11:02 AM

A thick smog and haze eclipse the sun all through the day when jhum areas are burnt. Jhum, known as shifting cultivation a practice practice inv

Shifting cultivation lands (Source: Prashant N S, 2006, Wikimedia)
A pond comes to life
Hundreds of villagers pitched in to revive a village pond at Bapugaon, a village in Rajasthan, to make it water and food secure. Posted on 22 Sep, 2015 10:42 AM

It had not rained for awhile and the tiny cracks in the earth in Bapugaon were opening up. This little village in Chaksu tehsil of Jaipur was yet again faced with a drought in the mid 1980s. The situation was aggravated in 1986 when the river Dhund, an important water source for Bapugaon, went dry. Since then, both the quantity and quality of water started deteriorating.

More than just physical rehabilitation of a water body, says Kalyan ji of Bapugaon
Polavaram--solution or problem?
Dam history will be repeated with the construction of the Polavaram Dam. Unfortunately, other options that could have been looked into such as reduction of height, were ignored.
Posted on 21 Sep, 2015 11:13 AM

Papi kondalu, a scenic gorge located on the lower stretches of the Godavari, will soon be engulfed within the controversial Polavaram Dam. The river serves as a visitor’s delight as it winds through the hills--the same hills that are home to primitive tribal groups such as the Kondareddys.

Papi kondalu gorge on Godavari (Source: Pranay Raj, Wikimedia Commons)
Bisalpur revisited--10 years after protesters were shot, killing 5
Despite many plans, neither rural nor urban are water secure thanks to the Bisalpur Dam since it was constructed in 2007.
Posted on 10 Sep, 2015 01:20 PM

Ten years ago five farmers were shot protesting the diversion of waters from Bisalpur dam to Jaipur city, located about 130 kms away.

Kisan Sewa Samiti, Chaksu struggling for drinking water allocation from Bisalpur dam (Source: CECODECON)
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