News and Articles

Term Path Alias

/sub-categories/news-and-articles

Unnatural world: National parks and climate change
Poachers, citizens and sometimes animals themselves are threats to the parks but the biggest new threat is climate change. Do our national parks stand a chance of surviving it? Posted on 01 Feb, 2016 03:39 PM

Forest guards in India have fought many things over time in the course of their daily work--poachers, irate citizens, even animals at times! But they are now facing a threat that may well be beyond their capacity to overcome. A threat that is not just responsible for the death of individual animals, but for the destruction of entire groups of species--climate change.

A herd of elephants cross the Ramganga river at Corbett National Park
Water and sanitation sector needs a budget push
Better regulation and transparency is needed in the WASH sector to ensure that India meets its Swachh Bharat Mission targets, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. Posted on 30 Jan, 2016 12:56 PM

While the WatSan sector has been prioritised in the country’s policy agenda through the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission, last year’s budgetary outlay was way below desired levels.

Handwashing at a Karnataka school
The paradox of poor sanitation in India
Scholars of development are puzzled that other regions where people are poorer, literacy rates lower, and drinking water more scarce, are better off that India when it comes to open defecation. Posted on 28 Jan, 2016 09:17 PM

Despite India's rapid economic growth in recent decades, open defecation rates continue to be very high. This presents a unique puzzle for scholars of development because other regions where people are poorer, literacy rates lower, and drinking water more scarce, are better off that India when it comes to open defecation.

The open defecation puzzle in India (Source: Sourabh Phadke)
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
Government sets ambitious targets for MGNREGS
Policy matters this week Posted on 26 Jan, 2016 02:09 PM

Aiming for an outcome-oriented programme, Government sets ambitious targets for MGNREGS

Labourers building check dams under MGNREGS (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
UP Coca Cola plant in trouble again
News this week Posted on 26 Jan, 2016 02:03 PM

CPCB finds Coca Cola plant in Hapur pumping toxic water into a pond

Coca Cola bottling plant (Source: S. Subramanium via Hindu)
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.
Can recurring droughts in Maharashtra be offset by participatory groundwater management (PGWM)?
Three different methods using PGWM that resulted in better water management demonstrate that hydrogeology can become a catalyst for villages to come together to plan and achieve water security. Posted on 20 Jan, 2016 09:02 AM

Maharashtra is the fourth state following Karnataka, Chattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh to seek out relief from the Union government thanks to more than 15,000 of its villages across Marathwada and parts of Western Maharashtra reeling under drought in 2015 [1].

The role of PGWM to deal with droughts in Maharashtra (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Centre speeds up its Clean Ganga Mission
Policy matters this week Posted on 19 Jan, 2016 11:36 AM

Centre to involve public, private firms for urban sewage treatment and Ganga clean up 

Ganga river at Gadmukteshwar (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
11,000 acres lake land encroached in Bengaluru
News this week Posted on 19 Jan, 2016 11:29 AM

Panel finds Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) and private builders responsible for 11,000 acres of lake land encroachment

Rachenahalli Lake in Bengaluru (Source: Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar)
×