Ecology and Environment

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Institute, Kodaikanal is a non-profit training and development organization dedicated to providing practical solution to a wide range of water, sanitation, hygiene and environmental issues across South Asia. It is one of the few institutes in India offering both formal and non formal courses in water and sanitation throughout the year. It has launched two formal courses which are job oriented. The formal courses are affiliated to the Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. 

This document presents the proceedings of the annual review meeting by India Meteorological Department (IMD) on “Forecasting Agricultural Output Using Space, Agrometeorology and Land Based Observations” (FASAL) organized at YASHADA, Pune during 1-2 August 2011.

This draft report by the Planning Commission, which presents an approach to the twelfth five year plan among other things outlines some of the challenges related to agriculture, natural resources management and water resources management.

Organizer: Centre for Science and Environment 

Venue: New Delhi

Description:

This December, strap up and brace yourselves and learn to communicate the environment-development challenges in contemporary India.

Interact with some of the county’s leading thinkers, academics, activists and development professionals on key environment and development challenges. Learn from them on ecological rights, natural resource management, food security, climate change and global environmental governance, urban growth, pollution control.

For the last few decades and more particularly since 1990’s the issue of human rights-violation of rights to life and livelihood of tribal peoples’ is a central concern. Therefore, the discourse on tribal movements and issues of tribal livelihood revolved around securing their well-defined rights on land and forest resources.

This case study in National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) by the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad and the Geo-Environment Division (Environment Management Group) deals with groundwater quality assessment of Jharia coalfield area of West Bengal. The physiochemical characteristics of groundwater of the upper catchments of the coalfield were studied to evaluate the water quality.

To what extent farmers and water resource managers already practice adaptive management and whether it is practiced in an optimal manner or could there be areas for improvement based on recent advancements in the theory of adaptive management are some of the questions that are particularly appropriate in the light of rapid changes in river basin water use and also in relation to basin closure.

This paper draws on the development and use of water resources in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP), with the LBP reservoir and the 84,000 hectare (ha) LBP command area. The project diverts water from the Bhavani River, a tributary of the Cauvery River in Tamil Nadu.

The focus is concepts that capture the hybridity of irrigation systems as complex systems, and cross the boundaries of the natural and social sciences. 

Changing climate, loss of native forests, disappearance of biodiversity, water shortages, desertification, the reduction of natural soil fertility — all add to the scenario of a world with increasingly complex environmental challenges.

The concept of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) has emerged as a challenge to the all-too-prevalent tradition of taking the Earth’s natural resources for granted. PES highlights a global continuum, illustrating the relationship between our lifestyles, the demands associated with our production and consumption patterns, and the effects those demands have on close or distant ecosystems.