Society, Culture, Religion and History

The river, along with its estuarine reach, provides the much-needed green lungs to the city in the form of mangroves. Neglect of this river was the main cause of the catastrophic floods in Mumbai on 26 July, 2005, which claimed nearly 1,000 lives. In what could be a monumental urban transformation initiative to be undertaken anywhere in India yet, ORF has proposed a grand vision for the reclamation of Mithi River. The study report and a documentary film ’Making the sewer a river again - Why Mumbai must reclaim its Mithi’ on the dreadful conditions of the river, was released in May, 2011 in Mumbai.

Based on evidence from this inquiry, the study presents a critical analysis of the environmental and social impact information of POSCO's steel-power-port components to expose the fact that regulatory agencies have inadequate information on the short term and long term impacts of the project on the basis of the information that the company supplied to them.  It also provides historical evidence

Report questions ADB funded projects under the 'Himachal Clean Energy Development Programme'.

• ADB loans for four hydroprojects at eco-fragile zones
• Livelihood concerns and environmental issues un-addressed
• Section 17/4 – Urgency clause being used by HPPCL for forced acquisition of land
• Poor EIA reports and non compliance to environmental norms

Recently, a Public Hearing for the World Bank funded Luhri Hydro Electric had to be cancelled after public protests making it clear that the environmental and social impacts of Hydropower projects as well as the increasing gap between their promise and performance, especially in the Himalayan region have become issues of serious concern. And yet these projects continue to be promoted in the garb of renewable and clean energy. So much so that governments are borrowing millions of rupees from international banks and financial institutions to fund these so called 'green' projects.The four ADB financed hydro power projects being constructed by HPPCL include the 195 MW Integrated Kashang Stage I, II and III and the 402 MW Shongtong-Karccham in Kinnaur. The other two projects are the 111 MW Sawara-Kuddu hydropower projects in Shimla district and the 100 MW Sainj hydropower project in Kullu District.

Organizer: Filmbooth

Venue: Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Description:

Filmbooth is organising a festival of short films and documentaries to celebrate World Environment Day at New Delhi. It includes short films and short documentaries juxtaposed with crisp 10-min talks by eminent personalities, all films & talks being related to various issues of environment, sustainability and awareness on climate change.

 It is an innovative version, and has been appreciated in many seminars and national workshops. It gives a logical treatment of mother earth based on human therapy.

For more information, please visit Awadhesh Nema's Blog.

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Development Resource & Training Centre (DRTC), CYSD, Bhubaneswar:

A 2-days Workshop on “Water conflicts in Odisha: Issues and way forward” has been organized during 28th – 29th, March, 2011 at Bhubaneswar by ‘Odisha State Centre’ of the ‘Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India’. Environmental activists, thinkers, academicians, Government Officials, Farmer leader’s and Civil Society Organizations from different parts of the state participated in the workshop along with members of the National Steering Committee of Forum to discuss about the ongoing and emerging water conflicts in different geographies of the state.

Main highlights in this update:

• NREGA implementation in State not satisfactory: The report card on implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a mix bag for Assam, with at least 62 per cent households being provided employment under the flagship schemes, while ombudsman has not been constituted for any district and State fund.

Organizer: Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India in collaboration with Baitarani Initiative and Odisha State Resource Centre of the Forum, SaciWATERs-CapNet Network (SCaN) and Cap-Net

Venue: Satapada on Chilika Lake, Odisha

Topics:

• Understanding water
• Normative concerns around water
• Legal and institutional issues related to water

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR, India) in association with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO, The Netherlands) invite applications for joint social science networking proposals between research centres in the participating European countries and India.