Hydropower

Only 8% of India are farmers - is the census accurate?

People warned to stay away from river

Yatra

Between Rishikesh and Badrinath

Background

On one side the PM says that "Ganga is the soul of India" and on the other, work on hydro projects continuously go on in the Himalayan basin of Ganga.

Adivasis' rights over forest lands diminishes

Land use changes  hydrologic system and have potentially large impacts on water resources. An assessment in an area with seasonally limited water availability and which is subject to rapid socio- economic development and population growth will provide an exemplary view on the local impacts of major recent developments in India. In this backdrop this paper analyzes past land use changes between 1989 and 2009 and their impacts on the water balance in the Mula and Mutha Rivers catchment upstream of Pune. The aim of the paper is:

• assess the land use changes between 1989/1990 and 2009/2010
• analyze the impacts of these changes on the long-term water balance components in the Mula and Mutha Rivers catchment upstream of the city of Pune.

While developmental projects are beneficial for growth of an economy they do have negative impact on the environment. This impact varies significantly by project type, size and location. In order to identify, examine, assess and evaluate the probable impacts of a proposed project on the environment the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) in 2006, constituted different committees. The committees are called as Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC). An EAC committee on River Valley & Hydroelectric projects was also set up on these lines. In the backdrop this South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDARP) an informal network of organisation and individuals working on water issues has come up with an analysis on how have this committee performed till now? This document presents an analysis of the same.

These global biodiversity hotspots in the country, extraordinarily rich in plant and animal species, are being submerged in the name of development and growth. An overview of the dams built and proposed in this area.

Delhi’s draft water policy

Fascism of the beginning of the twenty first century is the articulation and translation of racism and ethnicity into politics. Political developments in the nineteen nineties and the first years of the twenty first century demonstrate the determination to control the peripheries and the 'third world'.

This paper by Vandana Asthana in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the lived experiences of displaced women based on the empirical findings of research that looks at women displaced by the construction of the Tehri Dam and their relocation elsewhere.