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Using water games for economic gains

A field account of how playing a water game helped a remote community utilize its water resources better

Posted on 09 Jun, 2023 11:56 AM

It is rightly said that "what is measured is managed better". And we observed this happen at Sagapali village in Keonjhar district of Odisha. This village is in the Nayakote gram panchayat, and has an undulating terrain surrounded by five hillocks. It has forests around it with limited plainlands for cultivation.

Participatory gaming in the community dispels many myths and develops forums for group decision-making on the management of shared natural resources. (Image: FES)

Pune’s River Rejuvenation Project: a question of social justice

The river rejuvenation project (RRP) planned on the Mula Mutha by the PMC provides an example of how social injustice prevails in cities and how public infrastructure can be skewed towards some sections of society, argues Dr Gurudas Nulkar.

Gurudas Nulkar

Posted on 07 Jun, 2023 11:07 PM

Simply said, social justice is the fair and equal treatment of everyone who lives in a community. In the context of cities, it refers to the distribution and access to infrastructure, public goods, and services, without regard to economic status, religion, gender, or other demographic aspects of the citizens.

Construction activities along the banks of the Mula Mutha (Image Source: Jeevitnadi)

Decoding ‘just transition’ in India: The conceptual underpinnings

Just transition, as a development planning and implementation strategy, has certain non-negotiable attributes.

Sarthak Shukla

Posted on 05 Jun, 2023 10:17 PM

Planet Earth and humanity are experiencing turbulent times as climate change and induced socio-economic impacts are threatening ecology, society and the economy.

In the climate sphere, the approach of just transition aims at addressing injustices (Image: Kenueone, Pixabay)

Lived experiences of sanitation and hygiene access

Immersive research for safer sanitation in Bihar and Maharashtra

Santwana Sneha

Shankhajit Sen

Posted on 02 Jun, 2023 09:18 PM

Highlights from the study:

Children pose outside a toilet (Image: India Water Portal Flickr)

An angry river and a succumbing population

Flooding in the Northern Kosi catchment of Bihar is increasing and embankments are making it worse, increasing the risks for marginalised communities.

Posted on 31 May, 2023 05:11 PM

Highlights

Silt deposition at Kosi embankment at Navbhata near SaharsaBihar, India, in the Kosi River Basin (Image Source: CC BY 3.0 via Wikipedia)

Securing land rights for deprived urban communities

ActionAid drives change for deprived urban communities' rights to land, housing, and basic amenities

ActionAid India

Posted on 30 May, 2023 05:39 PM

Highlights

Communities assert their right to urban land (Image: Abraham Chacko, Flickr Commons, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0))

An anthropologist visits orans in Rajasthan

Orans are traditional sacred groves found in Rajasthan. These are community forests, preserved and managed by rural communities through institutions and codes that mark such forests sacred. Orans have significance for both, conservation and livelihood. The author visited two orans in Alwar district in Rajasthan and in this article, she writes about her observation.

Ranjita Mohanty

Posted on 26 May, 2023 10:17 PM

It’s a day in late June 2022. The sun is fierce. I am in Rogda village, in the Aravali hills in Rajasthan. As I walk into the village, I see a big pond filled with water; it was like an oasis. I would learn soon that it is johad, a traditional water harvesting system to capture runoff water during monsoon. I keep walking and now I am amidst trees.

Since ancient times, communities in Rajasthan have preserved these orans, and their lives have been inextricably entwined with them. (Image: Ranjita Mohanty)

Urgent need for coordinated effort to put out forest fires in Odisha

There is a strong correlation between forest fires and tendu prevalence in Odisha

iFOREST

Posted on 24 May, 2023 10:08 PM

Leading members of civil society from across Odisha gathered to discuss their concerns and recommendations in a civil society dialogue hosted by the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability, and Technology (iFOREST) in Bhubaneswar against the backdrop of the state's increasing number of forest fire incidents.

Forest fires ignited by natural causes, but major contribution of human action cannot be denied (Image: Naveen N K, Wikimedia Commons)

Investments in local risk resilience

UNICEF and G20 Disaster Risk Resilience (DRR) Working Group call for new social protection systems

UNICEF

Posted on 24 May, 2023 01:33 PM

The G20 Disaster Risk Resilience Working Group and UNICEF convened with delegates from the G20 countries, International Finance Institutions (IFI), United Nations agencies, civil society, private sector and community members to discuss ‘Strengthening Social Protection Systems for Climate and Disaster Risk Management’, in Mumbai.

Social protection has emerged as an important policy instrument to utilise disaster risk finances (Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay)

Conservation and collection practices in the sacred Thal Kedar forest of Uttarakhand

Both indigenous and scientific knowledge are equally important to promote biodiversity conservation

Devi Datt Joshi

Virender Singh Rana

Harendra Kharkwal

Posted on 20 May, 2023 06:57 PM

Forests are a primary source of food, water, medicine, fruits, shelter, bedding materials, fuel, fodder, and appliances for agriculture in rural areas, globally. The ‘sacred natural forest sites’ in the Himalayan mountains are a common center of different cultures, social groups, traditions, and beliefs.

The sacred Thal Kedar forest is a common sacred center for people of different cultures, traditions, and beliefs (Image: Mini Mehta, eUttaranchal)

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