Uttarakhand

Organizer: Indian Institute of Remote Sensing

Venue:Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun

Topics:

• Geomatics training and Education in India and International Level
• Cross Border Education initiatives and achievements
• Institutional and legal frameworks at national and International level

This report on farmers’ experiences on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in India by ICRISAT and WWF is an effort to compile the experiences of those farmers who pioneered the SRI method in various regions. They experimented in their own way, articulating their point of view on the method. 

The SRI is a national phenomenon in India and rice-cultivating farmers, particularly those who have less than one hectare of land, have experimented, refined, adopted and are promoting SRI. It is their hard work and trust that has spread this unknown method into all rice-growing states. Out of 564 rice-growing districts in India, SRI is being practiced by the farmers in about 216 districts.

The historical ‘Samajik Parivarthan Yatra’ (Rally for Social Transformation), has been started to consolidate the gains of the movement for total eradication by liberated safai karmacharis who for the first time are bonding with one another began the  journey for social change  together, to inspire others who are still engaged in manual scavenging to free themselves from the obnoxious practise and regain their sense of dignity, and also to achieve their rightful claims for the rehabilitation package and dignified alternative livelihoods on the one hand; and on the other, to motivate civil society to reject the heinous practice of manual scavenging. The Bus Yatra has been planned to start from five different corners of India, and traverse through 160 districts in 20 states and finally culminate in New Delhi with a large rally. Each route has been named after an eminent person who contributed to social change in a revolutionary manner.

This set of case studies is a part of a book prepared by Lokayan in collaboration with the Planning Commission titled “Seeds of Hope", covering themes of agriculture, biodiversity, education, forestry, governance, health, movements and water. The case studies related to agriculture and food security are summarised below:

In this report, the suitability of groundwater of the Doon valley, Dehradun has been demonstrated on the basis of standards prescribed by BIS and WHO. The groundwater quality of the valley has been studied during 1996 to examine the suitability of water for irrigation and drinking purposes. Twelve water samples representing the shallow groundwater of the valley were collected during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons and analyzed for various constituents, viz. pH, conductance, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, hardness, chloride, sulphate, phosphate, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Organizers:

• Indian Water Resources Society (IWRS) Roorkee
• Department of Water Resources Development and Management
• Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Workshop Themes:
This International workshop will provide a platform to the exprerienced and related expert professionals for intensive and threadbare deliberations to explore possible solutions to the vexed problem of stream flow management, channel improvement, sustainability of river eco-systems & IWRM and inland water ways. The focuses of the workshop are as follows:

Forwarded to the Portal by Dr.Vijay Verma

You are well aware that Dr. G D Agarwal aged 79 years Scientist, Environmentalist, Bureaucrat and Saint is on fast unto death from 20th July 2010 at Matri Sadan, Haridwar. His fragile age will not permit to endure long days of fast. It seems we are waiting for his demise.

National River Ganga Basin Authority (NRGBA) is formed to fool people of India as this is happening since Independence.

Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand of Dwarkapeeth sent his personal emissary Swami Dharanand to convey his support to Dr. G.D. Agrawal whose third fast-unto-death to ensure the natural flow in river Bhagirathi (Ganga) from Gangotri to Uttarkashi entered its second day. Yesterday (July 21) Swami Ramdev spent an hour in the evening with Dr. Agrawal and offered his full support.

The report presents the status of the sediment studies carried out in the lower as well as higher altitude region of the Garhwal Himalayas. The processes associated with sediment production in the mountainous region have been described with an emphasis on the glaciarized region. Suspended sediment concentration and load observed in the Dokraini glacier melt stream near its snout has been computed.