/topics/society-culture-religion-and-history
Society, Culture, Religion and History
Fishing for survival
Posted on 25 Jan, 2018 08:11 AMThere is a reason why water bodies are considered a resource. From the water they provide to the many living organisms they support, water bodies are constantly supplying us with things essential to our survival. They also provide livelihood as this story of some enterprising tribal women in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh exemplifies.
![Members of Kodikallavalasa village's Neelammathalli self-help group sit around the cage for fish rearing. Fertilised fish eggs are placed and provided nutrition in this enclosure and harvested as they grow. (Source: 101Reporters)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/img-20180118-wa0009.jpg?itok=ljBGD3lk)
Eliminate garbage naturally
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 06:19 PMKashmir was once known for its pristine mountains, lakes, beautiful landscape and clean environment. In the last few decades, however, things have changed. An increasing amount of untreated garbage produced by humans is becoming a critical problem affecting not only the health of the residents of Kashmir but its environment, too.
![A screenshot from the film Untreated Waste--Invitation to Disaster (Source: Abdul Rashid Bhat)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/wasted_life5s.jpg?itok=G0ErKPy0)
Profiting from sustainable farming
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 01:48 PMPitidri is a nondescript village that dots the rainshadow area of Purulia district in West Bengal. Droughts are common here even when the area is endowed with above average rainfall of over 1300 mm a year. Until some time ago, Urmila Mahato, a 42-year-old farmer from Pitidri had been struggling to ensure her family’s food security.
![Urmila Mahato at her farm.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/urmila_mahato_01.jpg?itok=NWtWgOIM)
Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:39 AMAlternative Futures: India Unshackled is a book that brings together scenarios of an India that is politically and socially egalitarian, radically democratic, economically sustainable and equitable, and socio-culturally diverse and harmonious.
![Alternative Futures: India Unshackled](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/cover_image_0.png?itok=7RK-oBj-)
Coughing out coal
Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:08 AMThe coal mining sector is all set to receive a boost in India as the government plans to open up the sector to commercial players by 2018.
![A villager looks at the changing landscape due to coal mines at Kosampalli village in Raigarh (Image source: IWP photo by Makarand Purohit)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/coal_mining_chhatissgarh.jpg?itok=yZmnZ9V5)
Sand mining in Rajasthan: SC refuses to lift ban
Posted on 16 Jan, 2018 10:41 AMSC refuses to lift ban on sand mining in Rajasthan
![Illegal mining affects the natural course of the river. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/18786183543_9c510fc748_o_1_1.jpg?itok=-Qjqxvcf)
Stubble burning banned, farmers stumped
Posted on 07 Jan, 2018 06:20 PMAmar Singh sits in his huge courtyard at the centre of his home in the village of Atraula in Meerut. Lying in the far west part of Uttar Pradesh, this is a flourishing sugarcane belt. An important agricultural region, its demographic, economic and cultural patterns are similar to that of nearby Haryana and Rajasthan.
![A large amount of crop residues are available in western UP and most of these are burnt in the field (Image: Ed Dunens, Flickr Commons)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/ed-dunens.jpg?itok=kyOhqF3V)
Dam spells doom for villagers
Posted on 05 Jan, 2018 11:43 AMLocated at Shamakhunta block of Mayurbhanj district, around 28 kilometers from Baripada town in Odisha, Baldiha dam was constructed during the rule of Maharaja Shri Ramchandra Bhanjdeo in 1912.
![Water flows into the dam. (Photo courtesy: Gurvinder Singh)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/20171220_130020.jpg?itok=e7hb2Ibt)
Is it worth the salt?
Posted on 12 Dec, 2017 12:22 PMThe fields are silvery white with raw salt crusts in the vicinity of Nawa, a small town on the northwestern banks of Sambhar lake, India’s largest inland lake. Nawa lies about 90 kilometres east of Jaipur. Also an extensive saline wetland and a Ramsar site, the blinding white salt flats stretch as far as one can see.
![Ramachander Singh, a salt worker who has been raking salt for decades now at this salt pan or kyari dotting the lake bed of Sambhar, Rajasthan.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/salt-sambhar1.jpg?itok=B6NXpcYP)
Soil health is declining in India: Report
Posted on 12 Dec, 2017 11:24 AMCarbon content in India's soil decreases
![India's soil health needs attention. (Source: IWP Flickr photo)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/8602347744_88b102609b_z.jpg?itok=-S0K2P84)