Empower Communities to Fix Forest Governance
Gautam Aredath, Sharachchandra Lele The Hindustan Times | September 5, 2024 The Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA), by recognising the rights of forest-dwelling communities to both access and manage their customary forests, offers a bottom-up vision of forest governance. Eighteen years on, progress in recognising these rights has no doubt been tardy. Only three states […]
AquaWISE – A Decision Support Tool for Greywater Treatment Solutions
Priyanka Jamwal, Durba Biswas India Water Portal | September 2, 2024 AquaWISE was developed as an evidence-based decision support tool for optimal deployment of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for greywater treatment in schools. The tool can minimise or eradicate the need for costly and time-consuming baseline data collection while also generating school-specific wastewater treatment NbS. AquaWISE […]
Reframing our Perception of Insects Moving Beyond “Creepy Crawlies”
Femi E Benny, Amritha Jaiprekash kurup Kerala Calling | August 17, 2024 Growing up in a small village in Kerala, we were closely connected to nature and taught to appreciate all living things, including insects. However, not all insects were treated equally. A vivid memory is the appearance of alates (winged termite swarms) at the […]
Why Mumbai Needs to Worry About Water?
Sachin Tiwale Loksatta | August 16, 2024 Long before the good news that the dams supplying water to Mumbai are more than 98 per cent full, while these dams are emptying like Salabad, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has decided to speed up the construction of two projects, the much awaited Gargai Dam and Sea Water […]
Howling for change: How the plight of Indian grey wolves challenges conservation norms
Iravatee Majgaonkar, Abi Tamim Vanak Frontline | August 13, 2024 Urban Indians are mostly unaware that India has a population of gray wolves, a threatened species in threatened ecosystems. Some 10 per cent of India’s landmass is covered by ecosystems known as Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs), habitats to species such as wolves, with a dry […]
14 Years After the Dilution of the Gadgil Report, Devastation Continues in the Western Ghats
Siddhartha Krishnan Scroll | August 9, 2024 The world is facing a climate emergency, and on July 31, the people of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve woke up to the stark reality that they may be inhabiting a dangerously vulnerable landscape. Maladaptation – development that is blind to climate change – is converging with heavy monsoonal […]
Learning to ‘see’: Lessons from scholar James C Scott (1936-2024)
Siddhartha Krishnan Scroll | July 31, 2024 Political science iconoclast James C Scott, who died on June 19 at 87, helped us understand subaltern silence or the ostensible passivity of the powerless. Peasant rebellions are evidence of class conflict. But Scott emphasised that the absence of protest does not mean the acceptance of oppression. There […]
Snake Day: Are Rajanagams Dangerous… What Should You Do if You See This?
Mathivanan M Vikatan | July 18, 2024 All the snakes such as the curled viper found on the ground, the earth snake, the water snake found in the water, the silver stick snake that climbs the walls, the katuvirian that is very common in the rainy season, the green snake found in the trees and […]
The Conundrum of Water Quality in Urban Water Supply in India
Sachin Tiwale India Waterportal | July 16, 2024 The recent Pey Jal Survekshan reveals that only 10 percent of cities provide safe drinking water to their citizens. Against this background, this article explains the challenges of providing safe drinking water through a centralised piped water supply model. It suggests the need to explore the alternative […]
Commons’ Sense: How Bengaluru and Other Indian Cities Should Approach Pollution, Traffic Problems
Vinay Sankar, Namratha Murali Scroll | July 15, 2024 The idea of common goods requires reconsidering free and open access in favour of an approach where resources are shared equitably among users. Creating equitable and sustainable cities must address the challenges of congestion, pollution and inequitable access to infrastructure. It is crucial to remember that […]
