Book Excerpt: Listen to the land

India's rich, diverse landscapes are brought nearly to waste by misguided decisions in name of development. The cracks in the land hold valuable …

World Environment Day 2023: Springs need urgent revival for water security in the Indian Himalayas

The neglect of springs and aquifers in the context of rivers and watersheds has led to large gaps in developing a national response to spring …

Aquatic animals will grow larger, not shrink in size, in warming waters: Study

The findings contradict the theory that aquatic animals such as fish will shrink due to global warming  

Guinea worm: A nasty parasite is nearly eradicated, but the push for zero cases will require patience

The final push to full eradication requires patience and faith on the part of institutions and governments supporting the effort; also, people …

The earliest humans swam 100,000 years ago, but swimming remains a privileged pastime

This year the OECD reported that only one in four people in low-income countries can swim

Resource wise: This panchayat head in Tamil Nadu uses tech to curtail water and power wastage

K Kanchana Kannaperumal installed sensors in eight villages of her panchayat; the move has benefitted 750-odd households

Gandhian Sanitation: How Kolhapur combined toilet design, biogas to treat faecal sludge

Almost 75 per cent of the district depends on properly designed septic tanks; around 25 per cent of it uses biogas-linked toilets at …

World Rivers Day: Does a river exist for us only when it floods?

It’s important to spread river education in its totality, before dams and canals take over ‘rivers’ in the perception battle 

Tackling marine plastic pollution

According to a 2017 study, the Odisha coast has the lowest quantity, and Goa coast has the highest quantity of beach debris

Great change for Little Rann: Finance for solar panels and the road ahead

Salt farmers cannot apply for bank loans to buy pumps and subsidies promised are delayed

Study finds high level of pharma contaminants in Cauvery

Water quality and levels of pharmaceutical contaminants in the Cauvery influenced by the monsoon season, according to a study

In a first, 4 West African countries commit to cooperate on Senegalo-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin

The Senegalo-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin is the largest in West Africa; Four countries have now agreed to cooperate on sharing it peaceably, …

World water day: How a village in Maharastra turned a dying lake into a birding paradise

Seven years ago, Paraswada lake in Gondia was nothing more than a stinking swamp filled with weed species that were killing its biodiversity 

How we conducted a feasibility study of water bodies in Faridabad

One should take advantage of available digital interfaces or create one by uploading all data in a systematic way so that the knowledge is in the …

920 million people could face conflict over the world’s rivers by 2050: What our study found in Africa

There’s a real risk that conflicts over sharing water resources will become more common as global temperatures rise

Watered down: Almost half of India’s rivers still remain polluted; here is why

India has mostly focussed on cleaning only major rivers; most states have recently started reviving their small rivers, but the progress remains …

UN 2023 Water Conference: I am hopeful Great Salt Lake won’t go the Aral Sea and Lake Urmia way, says Kevin Perry

Down To Earth speaks to Kevin Perry from the University of Utah on the Great Salt Lake in the American West

Water insecurity hits sub-Saharan Africa hard: Report

People with lower levels of income and those residing on the outskirts of cities are more prone to water insecurity

In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

Recurring urban floods exposed how thoughtless development projects have renedered the area vulnerable

Gandhian Sanitation: Flood-prone Sahibganj uses height and bacteria to manage its waste

Flood-prone blocks of Sahibganj in Jharkhand use biodigester toilets; these comprise a series of concrete tanks that contain sheets with an …

World Rivers Day: Adopt bottom-up approach, says student who cleaned Vadodara stream

Down To Earth talks to Sneha Shahi about the issues facing Indian rivers and her own experience of working with two of them

At least 26 of India’s 123 reservoirs are full: Central Water Commission

Storage at major river basins was normal, with Narmada, Sabarmati, Krishna and Cauvery basins having storage above 90%

75 years of people’s power: How these two villages in Chhattisgarh solved their grey water problem

Ghugwa and Patora villages in Durg district used household- and community-level soak pits to prevent waterlogging

Parched Haryana: In Gothra and Khanpur Khurd, salinity, recharge issues and extraction have spelt doom

As rainfall decreases over Charkhi Dadri and Jhajjar districts in Haryana, villages are digging deeper for water and repeating a vicious cycle

Chalk streams: why ‘England’s rainforests’ are so rare and precious

England’s chalk streams support a wide variety of biodiversity; but anthropogenic pressures are destroying these icons of English culture