India

We are beginning this effort with the conflicts that we have already documented by the Forum. You could also contribute to this effort by sending in abstracts of conflict cases that you know.

The Western Ghats Biodiversity Open Collaborative Information System or Western Ghats Portal (WGP) is a joint project between French Institute of Pondicherry and Strand Life Sciences, representing India Biodiversity Portal. WGP is being funded by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. CEPF is a global programme that works towards safeguarding biodiversity hotspots by providing strategic assistance to non-governmental organizations, community groups and other civil society partners. ATREE is the Regional Implementation Team to implement the conservation strategy outlined in the Western Ghats Ecosystem profile in partnership with CEPF.

A National Seminar on Water and Culture was organised by Sahayoga and Kannada University between June 25-27 2007. The seminar was intended to provide useful documentation to those working on water and agricultural management systems, those interested in integrating these traditional techniques with modern practices and to those working towards providing sustainable access to water and food, for all common citizens.

This paper discusses river linking, as a part of an ancient tradition, and suggests how NGOs can play a role in this attempt. The example of the Koyna dam is taken, and the effective handling of the technical and human angle of the dams construction is detailed through in-depth study and detailed field visits.

This paper attempts to discuss farm water conservation techniques and multiple  cropping patterns with the idea of minimising water use. The authors provide a glimpse of agricultural facts that include total geographical area, net sown area etc. They provide population trends in the country to point out to the water and food stress.

This paper discusses the role of paleochannels, which are remnants of stream channels cut in older rocks/sediments and filled by younger overlying sediments, representing the distribution of valley systems, in meeting current and future water requirements.

This paper describes a lake in one of the forests through which the Hindu god Ram and his brother Laxman passed, during their search for Sita. A virtual picture of the forest and the lake (Pampa Sarovara) in it using the Valmiki Ramayana which is a religious biopic of Ram's life on earth is created. This lake is situated near the town of Hampi in Karnataka today, and the forest is a rich source of water to this day.

To highlight the value placed on water and to describe water supply systems, the authors quote from the Chandogyo-Upanishad, Yajurveda and other ancient Indian texts.

This method is a mathematical model, in which all the components in the water balance equation are known, and the only component which is considered unknown is the rainfall recharge.

The project was a collaborative effort of the coordinators and scientists from the different modelling groups across the country. All the runs were made at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) at Bangalore on the PARAM Padma supercomputing system.