Ecology and Environment

Marine-coastal ecosystems and coastal communities are poorly represented in the public debates on India’s social and environmental problems. Coastal and marine ecosystems are the backbone of a fisheries economy that supports livelihoods of millions directly and several more indirectly.

Community groups such as fishers and other coastal populations enjoyed customary or traditional rights to exploit resources and to fish in adjacent coastal areas. The current state of fisheries finds its genesis in the modernization programme introduced by the Government of India to ‘develop’ the sector with the focus for development through the maximisation of production. In the late 1970s, modern fishing methods threatened the livelihoods of these communities and coastal ecosystems. Mechanised craft and gear, principally trawlers with bottom trawling gear, severely impacted fishing stocks.

Fisherfolk in India have struggled for greater control over the seas and resource management, struggles which have been directed both inward as well as against the State. The conflict over the coastal space is mostly between fishing communities and other new users and interest groups. Access to coastal resources is now being thrown open to all, giving a new meaning to the idea of ‘coastal commons’. There are very clear linkages between the rights to the coast and the right to fish as without the former, the latter will be difficult to operationalise and eventually rendered meaningless.

The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991 has been the only legislation with some mention and reference to customary rights of fishing communities on land in the coastal zone. However, it did not contain provisions and details to ascertain or establish these rights. Despite this, fishing communities have seen the CRZ in its 1991 form as an instrument in their favour as it regulates all activities that can potentially impact the coast and community livelihoods. However, the twenty one odd amendments to the CRZ Notification were mostly in favour of development pressures and special interest lobbies.

This backdrop forms the driving force behind this report which seeks to argue a case for according coastal land rights to fishing communities.

CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), established in 1958 with its headquarters at Nagpur and at present having five Zonal Laboratories across the country, is one of the constituent Institutes of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier multi-disciplinary R&D organization in India which is an autonomous body of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research under the aegis of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

 Soil respiration is a major process affecting the global carbon cycle and nutrient flux in the terrestrial ecosystem. It is the major pathway for exchange of gases from soil to atmosphere, influencing atmospheric temperature and ultimately contributing to global warming.

Organizer: Urban Leaves

Venue: Maharashtra Nature Park, Opp Dharavi Bus Depot, Dharavi, Mumbai.

Description:

Goa, the last remaining redoubt of the pleasant, civilized life in India, now faces environmental ruin from indiscriminate construction and exploitation of its natural resources. Concomitant with this ruin is the imminent erasure of its sui generis identity and culture wrought by the uncontrolled influx of migrants from all over India. First released in May 2008, this documentary was screened in towns and cities all across Goa.

The Centre for Science and Environment, an established research and advocacy institute needs Assistant Coordinator and Researcher for its Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment  (SIA) training programme and various activities in South Asia.

Bioremediation is emerging as an effective innovative technology for treatment of a wide variety of contaminants and is an invaluable tool box for wider application in the realm of environmental protection.

Bioremediation approach is currently applied to contain contaminants in soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediments including air. These technologies have become attractive alternatives to conventional clean-up technologies due to relatively low capital costs and their inherently aesthetic nature. 

It includes phytoremediation (plants) and rhizoremediation (plant and microbe interaction). Rhizoremediation, which is the most evolved process of bioremediation, involves the removal of specific contaminants from contaminated sites by mutual interaction of plant roots and suitable microbial flora. 

The report documents the existing knowledge for the benefit of regulators, who evaluate the quality of environment and for practitioners, who have to implement and evaluate remediation alternatives at a given contaminated site. It is expected to provide basic understanding of the bioremediation mechanisms to the reader. The technical descriptions provided in this document concentrate on the functioning mechanisms: phytosequestration, rhizodegradation, phytohydraulics, phytoextraction, phytodegradation, and phytovolatilization. 

 The agricultural ‘growth’ seen in the recent past in Gujarat is nothing but a good recovery from a major dip in production occurred during the drought years of 1999 and 2000, because of four consecutive years of successful monsoon and bulk water transfer through the Sardar Sarovar project. The real ‘miracle growth’ in Gujarat’s agriculture appears to have occurred during the period from 1988 to 1998.

Content courtesy: DevNetJobsIndia

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an established research and advocacy institute needs Senior Researchers for its Industry and Environment Programme. It requires senior candidates to undertake research and capacity building tasks for its two major sub programmes – study of EIA reports under the Community Support Programme and Environmental training and preparation of training modules under the Regulators programme.

Content courtesy: DevNetJobsIndia

ITC Limited is one of India’s biggest diversified corporations. Its extensive social investments programme combines effective community participation and social organisation with increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable management of natural resources. They are concentrated in remote rural areas in different parts of India. In addition to focus on natural resources management, equal emphasis is given to off-farm livelihoods.