Welcoming the debate on the assumptions underpinning water resource monitoring in India triggered by the Mihir Shah Committee report, the authors suggest that the proposed National Water Commission should focus on providing integrated data and science to help water managers and policymakers, avoiding getting directly involved in planning or regulation.
The collection and sale of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) forms a significant part of the livelihoods of forest fringe communities in India, with an estimated 10-27 crore people involved in it.
The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has taken the environmental science and policy literature by storm, and has become almost the approach to thinking about and assessing the nature-society relationship. In this review, we ask whether and in what way the ES concept is a useful way of organising research on the nature-society relationship. We trace the evolution of the different versions of the concept and identify key points of convergence and divergence.
The Arkavathy sub-basin, which is part of the Cauvery basin, is a highly stressed, rapidly urbanising watershed on the outskirts of the city of Bengaluru. This situation analysis document summarises the current state of knowledge on water management in the Arkavathy sub-basin and identifies critical knowledge gaps.
PES is often touted as win-win with both environmental gains and poverty alleviation. But REDD+ does not neccesarily translate into forest conservation or benefit local communities.
This response to the comment “Protecting India’s Protected Areas” by Praveen Bhargav and Shekar Dattatri (23 April 2011) points out the authors’ misreading of the Forest Rights Act and also of the report of the Joint Committee on the FRA.
This recent study by SANDEE examines the link between stream flow, agricultural water use and economic returns to agriculture. Attempts to simulate the likely impacts of regeneration of a degraded forest catchment on stream flow and the consequent impact on irrigation tankbased agriculture in a downstream village.
The T N Godavarman vs Union of India case in the Supreme Court, also known as the "forest case", is an example of the judiciary overstepping its constitutional mandate. The court has effectively taken over the day-to-day governance of Indian forests leading to negative social, ecological and administrative effects.
