Conservation - Reducing Water Usage

Organiser: Confederation of Indian Industry

Venue:  Gujarat University Convention Centre, Ahmedabad

Assam, the biggest of the seven North-eastern states of India, is a melting pot of various communities from various regions. The state with abundant natural resources and rich historic heritage, however, is faced with unique challenges.

Farmers all over the world have taken thousands of years to domesticate different plant, animal and bird species; developed and conserved thousands of varieties in spite of wars, epidemics, floods, droughts or famines - all kind of disasters. But with due (dis)respect to our ancestors, thousands of species were abandoned/ killed/destroyed (mostly during the last half a century).

 In their rush to notify buffer areas, which the Court directs should be done within three weeks, state governments are bypassing and violating the processes laid out in the Wild Life Protection Act and the Forest Rights Act. The Amicus Curae (Raj Panjwani) does not seem to be adequately informing the Court on these violations.

On the 4th and 5th of August 2012, Civil Society Organisations Prakruti, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) and Save Western Ghats Movement organised a two day workshop on Impacts of Mini Hydel Projects (MHPs) on Communities and Ecology in Karnataka, with a main objective to give voice to the numerous unrecorded impacts a

More erratic and extreme rainfall events leading to longer dry periods sometimes and high water availability at other times in the hilly region of Uttarakhand. Owing to the longer dry periods, available water sources are no longer sufficient, and groundwater levels drop even further, resulting in longer distances to fetch drinking water.

This paper published by Megh Pyne Abhiyan argues that  dug wells slowly started losing their significance following the invention and large scale marketing of hand pumps,.

The Prayas Energy Group, Pune had in August 2011, released a report titled “Thermal power plants on the anvil: Implications and need for rationalisation” on the large number of thermal power plants (TPPs) being pro

Satyamev Jayate  is a serial produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao and aired  on StarPlus. Each of its 13 episodes take a hard look at one of the various problems facing India today.

Anupam Mishra is an environmental activist and currently works with the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. The inspiring contribution dealing with the indigenous water systems of central India has been translated by Nirupama Adhikari into Bengali.