Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

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August 11, 2024
SeasonWatch: Citizens, trees, and climate change
Even in the face of daunting challenges like climate change, collective action and community engagement can lead to meaningful change
SeasonWatch tree walk at Rupa Rahul Bajaj Centre for Environment and Art (Image: SeasonWatch)
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)
October 6, 2022
Visualizing the Vrishabhavathi river to keep it alive
In an effort to inform the general public, especially citizen activists, policymakers, researchers, and students, about the current status of the Vrishabhavathi river, Paani.Earth has created the necessary maps, data, analysis, and information to drive conservation awareness and action around the river.
Vrishabhavathi river (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
October 1, 2021
Community videos: By the community, for the community
Community videos as a tool to influence behaviour change and adoption in rural communities
Community videos are produced by farmers themselves and feature local participants and agents from the rural communities themselves (Image: Digital Green)
September 17, 2021
Villagers’ shramdaan revives canal, enhances area under cultivation
Benefits of well-managed commons on livelihoods
Collective efforts revived the canal structure of Bichhiya dam bringing water to the village (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)
September 4, 2021
How Paani Foundation harnesses the power of communication for social transformation
Committed to use the power of all forms of communication to bring about behavioral change and transformation at scale
Villagers participating in shramdaan for making watershed structures (Image: Paani Foundation)
Manipur’s floating lake at risk
A study using remote sensing techniques assesses significant changes in land use in Loktak lake.
Rajiv Das Kangabam
Muthu Selvaraj
Muniswamy Govindaraju
Posted on 18 Oct, 2019 12:37 PM

Loktak, the largest freshwater lake in North East India is also known as the ‘floating lake’ for the numerous phumdis or masses of vegetation it supports. The phumdis float around on the lake’s surface due to decay from the bottom.
A home on Loktak lake in Moirang, Manipur (Image: Sharada Prasad CS, Wikipedia Commons)
Saving Aarey, the last lungs of Bombay
Mumbai’s citizens came out in droves to save trees from being felled in Aarey to make way for the metro. Collective action is crucial to save the green lungs of India's rapidly urbanising cities.
Aarti Kelkar Khambete
Posted on 11 Oct, 2019 06:30 PM

Last week saw protests of a different kind in Mumbai. Activists and citizens from all walks of life came together to protest the cutting of trees in Aarey Milk Colony, one of the few surviving green lungs of the fast growing and polluted city of Mumbai.
Aarey, the green lungs of Mumbai (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
SC stops further cutting of trees at Aarey; Idol immersion in Ganges to attract fine of Rs. 50,000; Household appliances to be rated on water consumption efficiency
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 10 Oct, 2019 12:05 PM

SC comes to the rescue of Aarey trees in Mumbai
Ganesh Visarjan (Source: Wikimedia Commons via Chetan Gole)
Goa fights to protect its khazans; Coonoor cleans its river; Punjab gov scrambles to clean Kali Bein River before Gurupurab
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 10 Oct, 2019 11:36 AM

Goa government, farmers against MoEF for proposing re-designation of the state’s low lying lands
Aerial view of a Khazan in the Zuari river, Goa.
Towards a new horizontal water federalism
Where do the aspirations of riverine ecosystems and communities fit in a federalist set-up?
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 09 Oct, 2019 08:04 PM

The execution of India’s institutional framework for preventing and solving conflicts over river water is still evolving. A new thinking on federalism in the field of water management to meet local aspirations and national ambition is needed.
Odisha and Chhattisgarh have locked horns over the distribution of waters of the Mahanadi river at Hirakud dam (Image: Makarand Purohit, India Water Portal)
Deadly chemicals from detergents end up in rivers
India needs to come up with a regulation on use of toxic chemicals in detergents.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 06 Oct, 2019 10:18 AM

It’s ironic that detergents, which are meant for cleaning, flow into water bodies and pollute them with chemicals.
Nonylphenol, a toxic chemical found in detergents is known to enter the water bodies and even the food chain, where it bio-accumulates and can pose serious environmental and health risks (Image: Toxics Link)
Monsoon withdrawal delayed; more extreme weather events the new trend
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 02 Oct, 2019 11:01 AM

Monsoon’s withdrawal likely to begin around October 10: IMD
Image used for representational purposes only. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr
River as a cultural mosaic
A dialogue that highlights the cultural essence of rivers
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 02 Oct, 2019 10:41 AM

"River conversations are critical to re-evaluate histories, reconnect civilisations, cultures and peoples, ideas and regions and open streams of thought for a future with exciting possibilities," says Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor and Vice Dean, Jindal School of Journalism and Communication who has conceptualized a new series of quarterly river conversations.
Yamuna near Taj Mahal (Image: Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Solving the energy conundrum
Some lessons for transition to small scale solar energy in rural areas from the work of MAJLIS, a collective of dalit and adivasi women in Madhya Pradesh.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 30 Sep, 2019 08:10 PM

Access to electricity is a key metric in development. In rural areas, getting on to the grid is a major step forward, improving literacy rates, agricultural productivity and overall household income. However, providing access to power derived from traditional sources like coal, diesel and hydropower, are proving unsustainable in the short and long term.
There has to be a policy shift for decentralised off grid or distributed generation catering to small communities. (Image: MAJLIS)
The Water Future Conference in Bangalore: Towards a Sustainable Water Future
The recently concluded 4 day conference in Bangalore looked at the current state of global water resource challenges & future pathways to achieve the SDGs, while ensuring equity in access to all.
Priya Desai
Posted on 30 Sep, 2019 12:38 PM

The Water Future Conference in Bangalore last week, saw many from the scientific community, academia, research, civil society and the media come together to discuss the state of water resources across the world and in India, as well as future pathways and scenarios, and different technological a
Charles Vorosmarty, Chair, COMPASS Initiative, Water Future at the opening plenary on advanced water system assessments to address water security challenges of the 21st century.
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