By allowing the Char Dham Highway to go ahead, putting aside all the environment, safety, disaster vulnerability and even norms and affidavits of the Ministry of Highways and the Defence Ministry, as well as the report of the expert panel set up by the apex court, the Judiciary has again failed the Environment, among other things. This is contrary to the generally held belief that Judiciary stands up for the cause of the environment. That belief has no real basis, as can be seen again. This is also failure of the governance, experts and environmental groups, besides also the failure of the media too.
Continue reading “DRP News Bulletin 20 Dec 2021: Judiciary fails the environment AGAIN”Tag: Lake
WFD 2021: Incidents of MASS FISH DEATH in India
Feature image:- Thousands of dead fish wash ashore on Yamuna banks in Agra (ToI, 27 July 2021)
November 21, marks World Fisheries Day (WFD) to address the sustainability issue in fisheries sector. The day also signifies the critical contribution of largely neglected indigenous fisherfolk communities facing range of threats over their livelihoods. On WFD SANDRP has been presenting detailed annual reports covering important developments concerning fish diversity, fishery industry and fisherfolks wellbeing.
on WFD 2021, this first part in three part series focuses on mass fish death incidents in India over past one year. The next part will cover successful efforts by fisher communities to protect fish diversity and their livelihoods apart from relevant positive developments. The final part will present the overall status of fish species, fisheries industry and fisherfolks struggles during past one year.
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DRP NB 30 Aug. 2021: Why no protection for aquatic biodiversity?
(Feature image Wildlife Along Indian Rivers by Green Humour:- http://www.greenhumour.com/2017/09/wildlife-along-indian-rivers.html)
Aquatic freshwater biodiversity has seen the maximum decline over the years and yet has the least protection under law. In fact fish is not even considered for protection under the Wildlife Protection Act. Fishing cat, Mahseer, Otters, Trout fish, Hilsa fish are all at top of the food chain in freshwater sources, like the tiger is in the forests, but none of them have the legal protection. If we have any serious intension of protecting this important source of biodiversity, we urgently need measures, including policy, legal and institutional measures to recognize and protect this biodiversity.
Continue reading “DRP NB 30 Aug. 2021: Why no protection for aquatic biodiversity?”
Revival Of Hauz Khas Lake, Delhi: A Pioneering Adventure of INTACH
Guest Blog by Manu Bhatnagar
Even as the water crisis gathers pace time is playing out a requiem for lakes and wetlands. Poor understanding of hydrology, greed driven capture of wetlands by real estate, the adoption of the shortest straight line path by infrastructure development agencies, the effort by engineers to make everything straight and neat by concretization, the plummeting of groundwater tables and the interception of free flowing surface runoff by alteration of basin characteristics are the major drivers of the rapid extinction of our waterbodies.
Continue reading “Revival Of Hauz Khas Lake, Delhi: A Pioneering Adventure of INTACH”
DRP NB 11 Jan. 2021: Big question marks over viability of Ganga waterway
[Feature image: A cargo stuck in Ganga in Balia, image source Dainik Jagran, June 2018. https://www.jagran.com/uttar-pradesh/ballia-stuck-cargo-ship-in-the-ganges-for-a-month-18139816.html]
This latest episode described below once again raises big question marks over the viability, feasibility and desirability of pushing Ganga as the National waterways. Its economic viability has been questioned many times earlier and this episode only reinforces it. The ecological viability is dependent on refusal to conduct any environmental impact assessment in any credible, transparent or participatory way, while the massive adverse impacts on the river, its biodiversity including the National Aquatic animal Dolphin as also on the livelihood of millions of fisher people and boats people are all known, but being ignored by the Ministry of Inland waterways headed by and pushed by Mr Nitin Gadkari rather blindly. The only way to resolve the issue is if there is an independent, informed assessment, which can happen only if the judiciary were to step in. Will they?
Continue reading “DRP NB 11 Jan. 2021: Big question marks over viability of Ganga waterway”
Wetlands 2020: Positive Developments
Pondicherry Collector led the revival of over 300 waterbodies The then District Collector and present Secretary to the Chief Minister, A. Vikranth Raja, stepped in with the idea of digging into revenue records to locate the region’s traditional water bodies. It all started with a query raised at the meeting. When someone asked if Karaikal had the capacity to store 7 tmcft of river water allotted by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, “the response from officials was an emphatic no,” says Selvaganesh, Assistant, District Collectorate of Karaikal.
In June 2019, in the tiny coastal enclave of Karaikal, administration officers brainstormed about putting in place a sustainable water resource management model for the town’s two lakh people. They found 549 ponds within a small territory spread over 157 sq. km. 40% of these water bodies were in various stages of extinction. Most of them turned out to be dumping yards.
Continue reading “Wetlands 2020: Positive Developments”
DRP NB 17 August 2020: The Contempt of Court case against MoEF
[Feature image: Cartoon on Draft EIA 2020 by Surendra, The Hindu https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/cartoon/cartoonscape-august-12-2020/article32328005.ece (12 Aug. 2020)]
This last week, one Contempt of Court case was deservedly in news, when on the eve of India’s 74th Independence day, the apex Court found public spirited Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of Court. Prashant Bhushan’s commitment for the cause of the people and responsible governance of various institutions is beyond question. He is known for being critical of the government and judiciary’s track record and is supported in this by most independent minded persons.
However, there was another contempt case this last week, related to environmental issues, that was not so much in the news. On June 30, 2020, Delhi High Court bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan in response to petition by environmentalist Vikrant Tongad had directed, among other things, that Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) should translate the Draft EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) Notification of 2020 into all the official languages of India and disseminate widely in ten days. (https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-hc-extends-public-response-deadline-to-draft-eia-2020/article31951610.ece)
Continue reading “DRP NB 17 August 2020: The Contempt of Court case against MoEF”
World Water Day 2020: Positive Stories from Rural India
The theme for the World Water Day 2020 is ‘Water and Climate Change’. The changing climate has disrupted the water cycle in a number of ways.
The rural areas in India have facing increasing water crisis due to mismanagement, top down government projects, unequal distribution of available resources and now also climate change. However there are several individuals, groups and government initiatives that have led improvement in the situation. We have presented positive water stories from farmers and urban India in earlier WWD 2020 articles. This last compilation in the series presents the positive water actions reported from different rural areas of country in past one year, beginning with top five positive water stories. Continue reading “World Water Day 2020: Positive Stories from Rural India”
World Water Day India 2020: Top Positive Urban Stories
The theme for World Water Day 2020 is ‘Water and Climate Change’. Indeed the changing climate has been altering the earth weather system including disrupting the water cycle.
Urban areas in India are facing increasingly severe water crisis due to mismanagement of available resources, urban flooding due to blockage and encroachments of drainage channels, pollution of water sources on account of increasing solid and liquid waste. However, there are individual, civil society group and government efforts which have been helping ameliorate the situation with rain water harvesting, pond revival, wells restoration among others. Here is a compilation of positive urban water stories from for World Water Day 2020.
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Brewing Farmer Crisis in heavily polluted, frothing Byramangala Tank Region
Guest Blog by: Nirmala Gowda
Diverting sewage and desilting are cornerstones of all lake rejuvenation today. Some important questions loom large. Doesn’t this push the problem downstream to the next water body? The lake filled with sewage and other questionable effluents is a problem for residents around the lake. Quite understandable so: The Mosquitoes, the intolerable stench, garbage piling up along with the recklessly growing vegetation. So, sewage gets diverted and garbage get thrown in someone else’s backyard. This apparently, is called Nimbyism. Continue reading “Brewing Farmer Crisis in heavily polluted, frothing Byramangala Tank Region”
SANDRP 