/topics/biodiversity
Biodiversity
Jharkhand's octogenarian water warrior
Posted on 28 Feb, 2016 01:39 PMIt was 1961. Simon Oraon, a Class IV school drop-out began his journey against drought in Bedo, a tribal block of Ranchi, Jharkhand. An idealistic young man, he along with his fellow villagers began constructing earthen dams to capture rainwater for recharging groundwater.
![A water body revived at Bedo, Ranchi](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/bedo-water-body.jpg?itok=AQS1hghD)
Saved by tanks: The story of Puducherry’s Bahour commune
Posted on 16 Feb, 2016 10:13 AMThe East Coast of India is very much unlike its western counterpart both in terms of physiography and climatology.
![The Manapet tank in Bahour has an ayacut of around 110 acres, most of which is now urbanised (Image: Seetha Gopalakrishnan, IWP)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/24937329615_8f42b8b924_z.jpg?itok=7YlOGpGH)
Unnatural world: National parks and climate change
Posted on 01 Feb, 2016 03:39 PMForest 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](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/elephant_crossing.jpg?itok=7nBuoIdV)
Ken-Betwa river gets some respite
Posted on 08 Jan, 2016 01:03 PMIn December 2015, more than forty years after it was conceived, the Government was set to launch India’s ambitious 30-link river interlinking project linking 37 rivers.
![View of Betwa river (Source: Manual Menal, Wikimedia Commons)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/betwa_manual-menal-small.jpg?itok=HHMI3GpG)
Choppy waters and a calm river voyager
Posted on 06 Dec, 2015 12:31 PMThe epic voyage--Nadisutra--along the Ganga may have been the high point of Emmanuel Theophilus’s recent work, but there have been many more peaks and valleys for this fervent mountaineer cum ecologist. Theo lives in a remote village near Munsiyari in Uttarakhand.
![Theophilus being awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' (Source: Kush Sethi)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/theo_0.jpg?itok=mpGyg-J1)
Springs are more than just a source of water for humans
Posted on 02 Dec, 2015 09:04 PM"If you do good work on the ground, policy will happen", says Himanshu Kulkarni of ACWADAM. This has proven to be in true at least in the case of springs.
![Springs not only provide humans with water but anchor entire ecosystems.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/banethi_spring.jpg?itok=HtPq6KL-)
New CGWA guidelines mandate NOC for industries to extract groundwater
Posted on 24 Nov, 2015 05:45 PMIndustries can extract groundwater only after obtaining a NOC: CGWA
![Groundwater, a scarce resource (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/img_0796_0.jpg?itok=8KbJ_P1N)
Be careful while bathing if you're in these six districts of UP!
Posted on 24 Nov, 2015 11:30 AMUP's rivers and groundwater are loaded with harmful effluents: CPCB
![View of the Yamuna in UP (Source: IWP Flickr Photo)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/2449965048_3684c8f1bb_z_1_0.jpg?itok=D7hsDrzE)
Wildlife Board panel not to consider projects in and around protected areas
Posted on 11 Nov, 2015 08:23 PMPanel not to consider projects until eco-zones are clearly demarcated
![Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan (Source: Vasundhara Deogawanka via IWP Flickr Photos)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/2971840436_081ac5b177_z.jpg?itok=Tyo4sTPk)
Mansarovar or Gaumukh: Which is the source of the Ganga?
Posted on 03 Nov, 2015 12:11 PMNIH scientists to probe if Mansarovar is the source of Ganga
![Bhagirathi river at its source, Gaumukh (Source: IWP Flickr Photo)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/9139589493_270208eef1_z_0.jpg?itok=F9gYK668)