Book review: Waterlines by Amita Baviskar

Rivers are wellsprings of life. They give birth to civilisations, sustain livelihoods and sometimes even trigger wars. Rivers inspire awe and …

Doomed! Carry on flushing

two years ago the Supreme Court fixed 31 March 2003 as the deadline for cleaning the Yamuna. It's April 2003 now and unbelievably, the river that …

PUBLIC OUTCRY

For the past several months, Delhi has been witness to a half-hearted government being prodded by a determined Supreme Court to clean the Yamuna. …

River restoration is not just an ecological act

Despite decades of restoration efforts by a rich ensemble of state-development actors, cultural heritage votaries and rights activists, the …

The past and present of rivers

Author(s): Karuna Futane We are a generation that has turned flowing fresh water rivers to rivers of sewage and garbage. We have lost rivers. …

What it takes to clean a river

It is the tale of two European rivers. The Rhine and the Danube. No river system in the world has a density of industrial agglomerations …

Pollution of Hinduisim

Simply put it is an amazing gap between theory and practice. Yet it is one of the main reasons why India's environment is as degraded as it is …

The political economy of defecation

This is a story about Delhi and the Yamuna, about the relationship between one of India's richest cities and one of her most revered rivers. The …

Polavaram fraud

The Polavaram dam on the Godavari could displace 400,000 people and submerge nearly 4,000 hectares of forestland. Most of the people threatened …

From the dirtiest to the cleanest: Mexico City’s journey

Mexico City is today recognised as one of the cleanest cities in the world, and the credit for this goes to Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon who recently …

Orphans of the river

Riverine fisherfolk, arguably the oldest among traders, are being sold down the river. An unholy synergy of poisoned rivers, government apathy …

How MEA torpedoed the Bangladesh-India gas pipeline

Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for the many controversies sparked by his provocative comments and controversial ideas. As minister for petroleum and …

I am green by choice , not by chance

Probably the first chief minister of Delhi to have taken a keen interest in the environment, Shiela Dixit has got a mixed response for her …

United Colours of Industry

Of all dyes produced across the world, 11 per cent goes out as effluents. 2 per cent from manufacturing and as much as 9 per cent from colouring. …

Gentle on critical pollution

After declaring 43 industrial areas in India as critically polluted and imposing a moratorium on their expansion, the Union Ministry of …

Lavasa exposed

By its looks, the place could be mistaken for Portofino, a fishing village-cum-resort in Italy—multi-coloured buildings crowd a waterfront …

This dying river in Karnataka is now coming back to life

A seven-year-long river rejuvenation project aims at bringing back River Kumudavathi by recharging groundwater

86-year-old Gandhian GD Agarwal fasts unto death to save the Ganga

Noted Gandhian and environmentalist GD Agarwal has fasted many times before to save the Ganga. But this time he will give up water too if the …

Two more Pune rivers set to get makeovers

Questions arise if this will only be a cosmetic makeover or one that will affect the rivers’ ecological system and services

Can Ministry of Jal Shakti save Indian rivers?

The new ministry has its work cut out as old ministries’ track record in cleaning and saving river basins hasn’t been great

Record low water levels on the Mississippi River in 2022 show how climate change is altering large rivers

Warmer atmospheric temperatures have the potential to evaporate more water, causing drought and to hold more water, causing extreme rainfall

Jammu’s youth are trying to save river Tawi but they need support

Tawi, a major source of drinking water for Jammu residents, has turned into a garbage dump

Dams in central Western Ghats affect catchment of perennial rivers: study

The researchers found that large scale activities are eroding the ecosystem by studying the Kali river in Karnataka

From ‘biologically dead’ to chart-toppingly clean: how the Thames made an extraordinary recovery over 60 years

More investment is needed in new drainage infrastructure across the city to avoid damage from increasingly frequent storm surges and overflows if …

Rivers' dry run

Ten of the 15 monitored river basins registered a dip in their reservoir levels between May 2014 and 2019