News and Articles

April 25, 2015 dawned as any other ordinary day in Nepal. Until 11.56. Then, a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.9 rattled the country and shook its very foundation. The tremors travelled outwards from the epicentre at Barpak Gorkha district moving the earth, distorting buildings, causing convulsions on the ground and creating panic and mayhem all around.

Citizens right to access information on water, climate and environmental issues

Sunderbans and Siachen glacier proposed to be recognised as a trans-boundary protected area

Massive national effort needed to resolve India's depleting groundwater

Uranium in drinking water

Groundwater in our country is rapidly depleting. Inspite of the vision of water managers in planning and investing in the water sector, there are a few issues in the field of groundwater that seem to be partly responsible for this deteriorating groundwater scenario in the country, and these are largely ignored. Where does the problem lie?

Scenario 1: You go to a cinema and it's cold.

As we leave behind the smooth, straight drive of NH 89 and take a dirt path that whirls around a few miles of undulating desert grassland, we end at a large patch of emerald green which looks outlandish. “The reason for such a spectacle in these harsh conditions lies close to the ground,” says Ravinder Chhabra, my local guide in Bikaner.

‘Kitna shaant hai ye paani, aur iske liye yeh rajniti’ (the water is so still, yet there is politics around it).

Indian activists have been campaigning for the last three years for a justiciable right to water and sanitation.