Society, Culture, Religion and History

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Featured Articles
October 8, 2023
India's rivers: From conservation movements to legal personhood
While the current push for legal personhood for rivers is facing obstacles and is stalled, it holds potential as a viable long-term strategy for the preservation of India's rivers
River quality deteriorates as demand for hydropower to support economic growth continues to expand. (Image: Yogendra Singh Negi, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)
June 16, 2023
Majuli Island: A tapestry of resilience and environmental harmony
Majuli serves as a symbol of both the delicate balance between human activity and the environment and the tenacity of its residents
Addressing various aspects of women's lives to enhance their social, economic, and political status (Image: Rebuild India Fund)
January 13, 2022
Water management in the times of Gonds of Central India
The water structures constructed during the Gond period continue to survive the test of time and provide evidence of the water wisdom of our ancestors.
Kundeshwar lake, Kundam in Jabalpur (Image Source: K G Vyas)
January 2, 2021
The fast disappearing traditional water harvesting structures of Rajasthan
Lack of community ownership and local governance are spelling doom for the once royal and resilient traditional water harvesting structures of Rajasthan.
Toorji Ka Jhalara, Jodhpur (Image Source: Rituja Mitra)
December 7, 2020
Not in the interest of women farmers!
The new farm related bills will spell doom for women workers who form the bulk of small and marginal sections of Indian agriculture, warns Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM).
Farm women, overworked and underpaid (Image Source: India Water Portal)
December 11, 2019
Scientists intervene to save dry toilets
Dry toilets have long been hailed as a sustainable solution to the sanitation and waste management crisis facing India today, but have been overshadowed by more modern toilet designs.
A traditional dry toilet. Image: India Science Wire
Profiting from sustainable farming
Sustainable agro-ecological farming is one way to overcome the limitations of conventional farming. Green College shows us how to do it.
Anupam Ekka
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 01:48 PM

Pitidri 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.
Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
A remarkable, first-ever collection of 35 essays on India’s future, by a diverse set of authors – activists, researchers, media practitioners.
Ashish Kothari
KJ Joy
Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:39 AM

Alternative 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
Coughing out coal
A study from Chhattisgarh finds that coal mining leads to severe health risks and environmental damage and questions the current policy emphasis on the use of coal for energy generation in India.
Rinchin
Prabir Chatterjee
Manan Ganguli
Smarajit Jana
Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:08 AM

The 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)
Sand mining in Rajasthan: SC refuses to lift ban
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 16 Jan, 2018 10:41 AM

SC refuses to lift ban on sand mining in Rajasthan 
Illegal mining affects the natural course of the river. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Stubble burning banned, farmers stumped
While banning stubble burning is a positive step towards reducing air pollution in the Delhi-NCR sector, the farmers need support from the government to adopt measures to enable smooth crop rotation.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 07 Jan, 2018 06:20 PM

Amar 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)
Dam spells doom for villagers
Baldiha dam that once quenched the thirst of farmlands and provided livelihood to Odisha farmers is now bereft of water, thanks to the apathy of the administration.
Gurvinder Singh
Posted on 05 Jan, 2018 11:43 AM

Located 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)
Is it worth the salt?
Unregulated salt production near Sambhar lake is not just causing health problems among salt workers, it is also depleting groundwater and ruining the ecosystem of the wetland.
Prabhat Jha
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 12 Dec, 2017 12:22 PM

The 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.
Soil health is declining in India: Report
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 12 Dec, 2017 11:24 AM

Carbon content in India's soil decreases
India's soil health needs attention. (Source: IWP Flickr photo)
Why fishermen fear Netravati river diversion
Changing the course of Netravati is feared to affect the fish population in the river which will, in turn, affect the fortunes of the fisherfolk dependent on it.
M. Raghuram
Posted on 09 Dec, 2017 04:36 PM

Rathnakar Salian is a traditional catamaran fisherman from Sasihitlu village in Mangaluru district of Karnataka. He learned how to throw the net, how to pull it out, and how to look for fish in the sea from his father and uncles.
Pipelines wait to be laid for the stormwater lift project. The Karnataka Niravari Nigama Limited (KNNL), which is undertaking the Yettinahole stormwater lift project, is constructing a massive pipeline corridor along the Salkeshpur-Hemavati belt. The project is estimated to be 35 percent complete.
Does sanitation really matter to us?
Complete sanitation is important for everyone. A collective effort is needed to make it happen.
Arti Manchanda Grover
Posted on 04 Dec, 2017 04:05 PM

Social media has brought the world to our desktop where information is available at the click of a button. The issues now are not just related to a particular community, region, state, or country; they are global. We get attached to them directly or indirectly and share our opinions on them, which is an easy and powerful way to contribute towards addressing issues we care about.
An initiative to prepare women to be sanitation ambassadors to provide strength to sanitation drives in their villages.
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