जलवायु परिवर्तन की मार से किस प्रकार भारतीय खेती और किसान प्रभावित हो रहे है, इसकी एक झलक हमको फरवरी अंत और मार्च 2015 के आंरभ में हुई। अप्रत्याशित हिमपात, बरसात एवं परिणामस्वरूप आई बाढ़ के रूप में देखने को मिली। 28 फरवरी से 03 मार्च 2015 चार दिन तक हुई इस बेमौसमी बरसात से लाखों भारतीय किसानों के प्रभावित होने की आशंका है। साथ-साथ जलवायु परिवर्तन जनित इन घटनाओं से भूमिहीन किसानों की बहुत अधिक दुर्दशा होती है और ऊपर उनकी सुध लेने वाला कोई नहीं है। Continue reading “जलवायु परिवर्तन की मार झेल रहे भारतीय किसान ; बेमौसमी बरसात का प्लेजियों को सबसे ज्यादा नुकसान”
Year: 2015
Early Spring Rains bring Climate Disaster for farmers in India
It was bit of a shock to get up to a VERY wet Sunday on March 1, 2015, having slept past midnight the previous night with a ‘dry’ weather. When I checked my inbox, the message from Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan was waiting to provide a link to Accuweather.com site[1] and also satellite image from India Meteorology Department (IMD) site[2]. It looked ominous: “A potent storm will drop unusually far south as March begins, blasting India and Pakistan with heavy thunderstorms, flooding rain and burying mountain snow.” Northwestern India and Northern Pakistan were to face the maximum impact, but the impacts were to reach far down south right upto Karnataka. As the site said it was a rare event: “It is rare for widespread substantial rain such as this elsewhere across northern and central India”. Continue reading “Early Spring Rains bring Climate Disaster for farmers in India”
India Budget 2015: Is there any hope for rivers, environment or farmers?
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Maiden Full year budget presented to the Parliament on Feb 28, 2015 invited a lot of hype. Let us see what his statement of account for the 2015-16 has in store for rivers, environment, Himalayas, farmers, Climate Victims or sustainable water resources development. Continue reading “India Budget 2015: Is there any hope for rivers, environment or farmers?”
Ekti Nadir Naam: Ramblings through the etymology of River names in India
Above: Dry Chandrabhaga from Maharashtra. We have at least 5 Chandrabhagas in India! Photo: Parineeta Dandekar
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“I’m going to buy vegetables from the banks of Ganga. Coming?” (“गंगेवर चालले आहे भाजी आणायला. येणार?”). This was my Grandmother’s Sunday morning ritual. I always jumped at the opportunity: it meant going to the local market skirting Ganga and staring at colorful heaps of vegetables, patting dewlaps of humongous cows settled in islands, stealing guilty glances at sadhus who sold fascinating stuff: owl claws, deer musk pods, Giant Entada seeds..but most of all, it meant observing the filthy and beautiful river from the Ghats. I lived in Nashik, on the banks of Godavari and Godavari was our Ganga. Continue reading “Ekti Nadir Naam: Ramblings through the etymology of River names in India”
Thirsty sugarcane in dry Marathwada means a loss of 2 million farmer livelihoods
Above: Gangakhed sugar factory from Parbhani Marathwada which has crushed 7 Lakh Tonnes of cane till 21 Feb 2015. Parbhani has received a mere 346 mm rainfall this year, nearly equal to what it received during epic drought of 1972
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Although Marathwada region in Maharashtra is no stranger to droughts, it’s facing a singularly acute crisis this year. Kharif crops had failed in all of the 8139 Kharif villages in the region with yields less than 50% of government standards (paisewari). Rabi is under cloud too with all 396 villages assessed for production showing less than 50% yield. And yet, area under and production of water guzzler crop like Sugarcane is going up. In 2013-14, Marathwada grew over 2 lakh hectares of sugarcane and is now crushing the cane in its 61 sugar factories using thousands of lakhs of litres water every day.
Does this make any social, economic or environmental sense? No
But do we have options? It seems so. Let us see how. Continue reading “Thirsty sugarcane in dry Marathwada means a loss of 2 million farmer livelihoods”
हिमालयी नदियों से खिलवाड़ और जून 2013 की उत्तराखण्ड़ त्रासदी
क्या है हिमालयी नदियों का मिजाज़ ? (एन.डी.टी.वी.- इंडिया, 20 फरवरी 2014,
http://khabar.ndtv.com/video/show/documentary-ndtv-india/what-is-the-mood-of-himalayan-river-357478)
रिपोर्टर:- सुशील बहुगुणा, कैमरामैनः- सुदीश कुमार राम, एडिटरः- कुलदीप कुमार, एन.डी.टी.वी.- इंडिया
रिपोर्टरः- जून 2013, उत्तराखण्ड में, नदियों के साथ आई तबाही की ये तस्वीरें। तस्वीरें जो हमें मजबूर करती हैं, ये समझने को, कि आखिर ये नदियाॅ इतनी रौद्र, इतनी विकराल क्यों हो रही हैं ? ये नदियाॅ हमारे घर-आॅगन क्यों उजाड़ रही हैं ? कहीं हम ही, इन नदियों के अहाते में तो नहीं घुस गए ? कहीं हमने नदियों की लहरों में बेहिसाब बेडि़याॅ तो नहीं डाल दी ? क्या हम नदियों का मिजाज़ अब तक समझ भी पाए हैं ?
Continue reading “हिमालयी नदियों से खिलवाड़ और जून 2013 की उत्तराखण्ड़ त्रासदी”
Landslide dam threat in Zanskar Valley to continue for more weeks: Update 2
In the most significant event so far on the issue of landslide blockage of Phutkal River in Zanskar Valley in Kargil District in Kashmir, the National Crisis Management Committee[1] (NCMC) chaired by the Union Cabinet Secretary Shri Ajit Seth met[2] on Feb 20, 2015 and approved the Action Plan whose implementation will begin within next 15 days and is to be completed by end of March. This decision is based on assumption that the snowmelt will cause landslide dam threatening situation only in April.
Continue reading “Landslide dam threat in Zanskar Valley to continue for more weeks: Update 2”
An Epic Voyage along the Ganga comes to close!
From Burton and Speke’s expedition to the origin of Nile to the age old Narmada Parikrama or the Chaar Dhaam Yatras (which are as much river journeys as pilgrimages), River journeys have always enthralled travelers and listeners alike. Continue reading “An Epic Voyage along the Ganga comes to close!”
DRP from SANDRP: January 2015
DRP from SANDRP January 2015: The following developments are about dams, rivers & people, mostly from India but also some from South Asia and rest of the world. This is for the period Jan 1 to Feb 12, 2015, we hope to publish this more frequently in future. These were put up on daily basis on SANDRP Face book page: https://www.facebook.com/sandrp.in. If you want to get it regularly, you can like the FB page.
Feedback on usefulness of this is welcome. Continue reading “DRP from SANDRP: January 2015”
Mission on Small Hydro Projects: Ignoring social and environmental impacts will not help
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the RE-Invest 2015, India’s first Renewable Energy Global Investors’ Meet and Expo in New Delhi on February 15, 2015, full-page advertisements in the National Capital declared the target of adding 5000 MW of small hydro capacity by 2022, in addition to other renewable energy targets. A part of this renewed focus on small hydro, a subset of India’s new push for Renewable Energy, involves a new Mission for Small Hydro Projects. Even as it has some welcome features, the new Mission will not help if the government continues to ignore significant social and environmental impacts of small hydro projects. Continue reading “Mission on Small Hydro Projects: Ignoring social and environmental impacts will not help”
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