Chicu Lokgariwar

IWMI-Tata water policy research programme is a collaborative initiative between the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT). 

Those readers who got the insider joke in the title need no introduction to the rainwater harvesting and ecological sanitation evangelist that is zenrainman.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is now gaining a foothold in the mountain regions of India, with more than

Horrifying images like the one below, where a two-storey house topples like a child's toy, are commonplace in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. This year, the mayhem due to a cloudburst claimed 31 lives and disrupted hundreds more.

On 31st January 2012, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) had released the draft of the National Water Policy 2012 and invited comments till 29 February. Following the meeting of the National Water Board on 7th June 2012, the MoWR has now put up a revised draft on their website.

Forest fires occur with distressing regularity in the Himalayan states in the summer. This article presents some information of the scale of forest fires in Uttarakhand, and a first-hand account of their  impacts.

 Mountain areas and communities are susceptible to climate change. This work also yielded evidence of the coping strategies developed by the communities to deal with an unprecedented and only partially understood threat. This paper describes these strategies and attempts to assess the vulnerability of the communities in each valley.