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Governance
Staying afloat, one stepwell at a time
Posted on 19 Aug, 2016 01:09 PM"Jatene dekho utene bawri" (wherever you look, there’s a stepwell). This is how the woman standing on the threshold of her house, in the walled city of Jodhpur, told us when we asked where we could find stepwells in her neighbourhood.
![Toorji ka jhalra, one of the step ponds that attracts tourists in Jodhpur.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/_dsc0148.jpg?itok=4eDC2J_l)
Art of Living guilty of damaging Yamuna floodplains
Posted on 16 Aug, 2016 09:57 AMWorld Culture Festival damaged Yamuna floodplains, concludes NGT
![The front view of the giant stage under construction for the World Culture Festival. (Source: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/lead_4_0_0.jpg?itok=HEGp0GGK)
Interlinking project needs reanalysis: IIT Study
Posted on 16 Aug, 2016 09:53 AMNot enough water available for interlinking rivers: IIT study
![Interlinking of rivers (Source: NIH)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/interlinking1_0.jpg?itok=oK5Q7nxa)
Children of a lesser God
Posted on 09 Aug, 2016 10:32 PMIn what is considered the worst flood in a decade, the flood in Assam this year has swept over 2,800 villages away and submerged more than two lakh hectares of crop. More than 26 lakh people have been affected in 28 out of 34 districts of the state.
![Children take refuge in temporary shelters. (Photo source: Jhai Foundation)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/13585182_1036590993084995_4720323691581569427_o_1.jpg?itok=S94sCDSM)
UP unable to protect Yamuna, Taj Mahal: NGT
Posted on 08 Aug, 2016 11:37 PMNGT raps UP government over Yamuna's pollution near the Taj Mahal
![Yamuna river near the Taj Mahal. (Source: Ekabhishek via Wikipedia)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/taj_mahal_reflection_on_yamuna_river_agra.jpg?itok=-hUAdhMj)
Community effort saves mangroves
Posted on 04 Aug, 2016 09:52 AMCome monsoon, the villages in the Sundarbans islands witness nature’s fury with floodwaters overriding all boundaries and inundating huge tracts of land. As such, the earthen embankments, stretching to 3600 kms on the 54 inhabited islands out of a total of 102 in the Sundarbans, protect scores of people from floods and tidal waves.
![Mangroves of Sundarbans. (Source: Nature Environment & Wildlife Society - NEWS)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/plantation_sites.jpg?itok=2lWryLUA)
Mines radiate disaster
Posted on 04 Aug, 2016 09:43 AMThe body of Guria Das looked like that of a three-year-old when she passed away at the age of 13. Guria was born in 1999 with a condition that constrained her growth. Her father, Chhatua Das recounts how Guria, unable to speak or move, communicated with him and his wife through gestures; a language that only the three of them could comprehend.
![Guria was born deformed. Her father Chhatua blames the radiation from indiscriminate uranium mining and the tailings ponds for her death.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/gudia_das.jpg?itok=czwWQHxJ)
Bio-loos on track, Railways to clean up its act
Posted on 03 Aug, 2016 10:27 AMFor almost two decades, the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act of 1993 was a paralytic occupant of the statute books. The Act prohibited the construction of dry toilets which required faeces to be removed manually and outlawed manual scavenging.
![A rail coach fitted with bio-toilet. (Courtesy: India Railway Info)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/1370953633942-dsc_1365_bio_toilets_are_seen_fitted_to_coach.jpg.jpg?itok=kG94xNzS)
Rejuvenating traditional water system in Maharashtra
Posted on 02 Aug, 2016 09:44 AMMalguzari tanks were ponds made for water harvesting by the Malguzaars, who were zamindars or tenants in eastern Vidarbha, Maharashtra two centuries ago.These tanks provided water for irrigation and also increased the availability of fish for local consumption.
![Janbhora Malguzari tank in Bhandara](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/janbhora_tank_in_bhandara_district.jpg?itok=i28MQ1HM)
Riverbed off limits, farmers fume
Posted on 01 Aug, 2016 08:23 PMChampa Devi has been working as a sharecropper on a two-acre farm at Nilothi village in west Delhi. Until a few years ago, the water she used for irrigation came from the Najafgarh drain that empties into the Yamuna river. This form of cultivation using waste water was a norm in the area till sometime ago.
![Thousands of farmers like Champa Devi (in pic) who were growing edible crops or doing fodder cultivation on the riverbed and its floodplains took the brunt of the court’s decision.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/champa-kewat_0.jpg?itok=ot4vx_ZF)