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Conserve/Resist

Obituary: TN Godavarman: the man behind India’s biggest environment court case

7th June 2016

Nihar Gokhale writes: In environmental policy, there’s one Supreme Court case that beat all others: TN Godavarman Thirumalpad versus Union of India and others. Writ Petition (Civil) 202 of 1995. On 1 June, days before World Environment Day, the man who lent his name to the most iconic environment case in the country, passed away….

Sea level rise has washed away more than 50% of Ghoramara island, Sunderbans

Daesung Lee

CLIMATE CRISIS

Precautionary measures for natural calamities: A letter to the Prime Minister

6th June 2016

Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy writes: Droughts, floods, heat & cold waves will keep threatening India. We can’t expect the Paris agreement to solve the crisis associated with these extreme weather events. The way to minimize their impact is through adaptive measures by understanding the mechanism in which they occur, by quantifying the agro-climate of a region….

ECOCIDE/EXTINCTION

From the Green Revolution to GMOs: Living in the shadow of global agribusiness

2nd June 2016

Colin Todhunter writes: Powerful corporations hold sway over a globalised system of food and agriculture from seed to plate. The narrative about farming has been shaped to benefit this handful of influential corporations. With major mergers within the agribusiness sector in the pipeline, power will be further consolidated and the situation is likely to worsen….

ENERGY

Video: AAP Leader Ashish Khetan alleges “massive power scam” involving Adani, Ambani and Essar

Akhil Kumar reports: Citing an investigation conducted by the finance ministry’s Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Ashish Khetan, AAP member and vice-chairman of the Delhi Dialogue Commission, has written to PM Narendra Modi demanding swift action in what he says is a massive scam in which major Indian power companies have been siphoning off public money offshore….

CLIMATE CRISIS

The hidden connection between air pollution and heat spikes: India’s lethal double bind

1st June 2016

India has an extreme air pollution problem, which kills up to 400,000 people every year. This pollution, made up of fine particles called aerosols, also has the effect of cooling the local climate by reflecting or absorbing sunlight before it reaches the ground. It is feasible that India’s pollution problem has been “hiding” extreme heat spikes….

Dongria Kondh boy Kalia stands in front of the Niyamgiri hill range

Lewis Davids/Survival

Conflict/Dispossession

For 10 Years, Niyamgiri’s adivasis have resisted a takeover of their land by the government and Vedanta

31st May 2016

Susmita Mukherjee writes: The Supreme Court has scrapped a petition filed, yet again by the Odisha Mining Corporation, challenging the resolutions of the Gram Sabhas of Niyamgiri Hills. For ten years, the Dongaria Kondhs have been looking beyond the education facilities being offered to them by Vedanta and continue their struggle to protect their land….

Conflict/Dispossession

Yogendra Yadav: Modi’s inaction on drought speaks louder than his words

The PM patted his own back for meeting the CMs of drought affected states. What he did not mention that the CMs were given much less than what they needed and asked for from the National Disaster Response Fund, that too after considerable delays. The MNREGA too is starved of funds by the central government….

CLIMATE CRISIS

The true cost of the obsession with GDP growth

30th May 2016

Shankar Sharma writes: It’s evident that an economic policy focusing on high GDP growth rate has not only not resulted in the elimination of poverty, but is certainly leading to accelerated depletion of our natural resources and to the unacceptable level of pollution of land, water and air, while contributing to the global warming phenomenon….

ALTERNATIVES

Series: Combating drought – 3: Traditional methods to the rescue

India is reeling under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, and shredding the social fabric in affected areas. In this concluding part of our series on combating drought, we present examples where traditional methods for water harvesting have been successfully put to use by communities to drought-proof themselves….

Education/Awareness

Ghagh: Why a 16th century farmer-poet is still relevant

24th May 2016

Mrinal Pande writes: For more than four centuries, Ghagh, literally “the sly one”, has been undoubtedly the most popular of poet philosophers for farming communities in the Indo-Gangetic plains. An astronomer and agricultural guru, Ghagh’s pithy couplets discuss crop cycles, seeds, tips for buying healthy cattle, and reflections on vagaries of both man and nature….

Conflict/Dispossession

Recent victories by people’s movements show democracy is thriving

23rd May 2016

Ashish Kothari writes: Unlike the representative form that most countries have adopted, a series of recent events point more to a direct form in which people on the ground have the primary power of decision-making. From Chhattisgarh to Odisha, people’s movements against large development projects have brought out the real power of democracy in India….

ALTERNATIVES

Series: Combating drought – 2: Success stories

As India reels under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, it’s time to ask whether the present situation could’ve been avoided. And yet, here are examples from across India where, armed with little more than determination and imagination, ordinary people have turned things around to create little oases….

ALTERNATIVES

SPICE: The world’s first solar farming cooperative

22nd May 2016

The Indian Express reports: Last week, a Solar Pump Irrigators’ Cooperative Enterprise (SPICE) was up and running in Dhundi, a village in Gujarat’s Anand district. Members of this cooperative —the first of its kind in the world— are using solar power not only to run pumps, but also sell their surplus energy to the grid….

Development/Growth

National Waterways Bill: Digging our rivers’ graves?

Nachiket Kelkar writes: This Bill plans to convert 106 rivers and creeks across India into waterway canals, purportedly for ‘eco-friendly transport’ of cargo, coal, industrial raw materials, and tourism. Unfortunately there is no debate on the high ecological and social risks the NWB poses to riverine biodiversity and local resources through such irreversible engineering controls….

Sea level rise has washed away more than 50% of Ghoramara island, Sunderbans

Daesung Lee

CLIMATE CRISIS

India’s perfect storm: Environmental and demographic stresses building up

21st May 2016

Kanti Bajpai writes: India’s water crisis is a clear sign that a storm of epic proportions is on its way. India’s per capita water availability is now below the threshold level of 1,400 cubic metres per person. If so, India is heading from ‘water stress’ to ‘water scarcity’ and the possibility of internal water wars….

Development/Growth

Spotlight: Prakash Javadekar@2 years of Modi Government

India’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar has been constantly in news, and not always for the right reasons. Under fire for diluting environmental protection mechanisms, critics have in the past labelled him ‘minister for environmental clearances’ for favouring industry over the environment. As the Narendra Modi government completes two years, here’s a look at Javadekar’s chequered record….

Morvarid Fernandez

Food/Farming

With cultivable land shrinking steadily, food surplus India stares at food deficient future

19th May 2016

Maninder Dabas writes: With 35% of agricultural households having less than 1 acre of land, the shrinking of agricultural land holdings in India is a worrying trend. Since 1995-96, the average size land holding has decreased from 1.41 hectares to 1.15 hectares which accounts for the decrease of 30,000 hectares of cultivable land each year….

Digests/Specials

Series: Combating drought – 1: What the experts say

18th May 2016

As India reels under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, it’s time to ask whether the present situation could’ve been avoided. As many expert voices presented here point out, it’s not the weather alone that creates a drought, but bad planning and an often corrupt and apathetic administration….

ALTERNATIVES

Bastar: Conservation in the time of conflict

Madhu Ramnath reports: Unknown to the rest of the country, a small group of adivasis from the forested villages in central Bastar have been busy doing work that would make conservationists proud. People from Sandh Karmari, Kakalgur, Kangoli and nearby villages have been gathering native seeds and raising them in nurseries in fairly large numbers….

Conflict/Dispossession

India facing its worst water crisis ever: Himanshu Thakkar

Environmental activist and water expert Himanshu Thakkar tells Business Standard that India needs a comprehensive water use policy immediately. Making it clear that India is facing its worst drought ever, he says: “I do not think it is statement of pessimism but possibly reflects a reality. What we are seeing this year is unprecedented in many respects….