This document is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being.
Managing disasters, sustaining development in the Hindu Kush Himalayas - a presentation by Aditi Mukherji at CSE Annual South Asian Media Briefing Workshop on Climate Change, 2013 held in New Delhi from September 18-19, 2013.
Based on data from the four minor irrigation censuses conducted by the Ministry of Water Resources between 1986-87 and 2006-07, this paper points out that India's groundwater sector has slowed down since 2000-01, most markedly in eastern India. It examines the reasons for this and also looks into how farmers have been responding to lowered groundwater tables. Besides identifying some factors that have not changed since the mid-1980s, it emphasises that there are wide regional variations in the country's groundwater economy and management strategies need to be crafted accordingly.
Literature on arsenic contamination of groundwater is replete with studies about the impacts of drinking arsenic contaminated water on human health as well as mitigation efforts in that context.
This highlight compares data on wells and tube wells, diesel and electric pumps from four sources, namely, Minor Irrigation Census (MIC), Agricultural Census (Ag), Input Survey (InS) and statistics from State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and/ or the State Statistical Bureaus for four time periods representing mid-1980s, 1990s, early 2000s and mid-2
Two decisions taken by the Government of West Bengal, one, to facilitate easier extraction of groundwater, and the other, the application of a fi xed connection fee for an electricity connection to farmers could well lead to a quantum leap in agricultural production.
