The NREGP is the largest ever employment programme in human history and India will have to allocate Rs 30,000 crores every year to sustain this programme. It has, since it was implemented, made news across the country, some good and some not so good.

The River Arkavathi is a tributary of the River Cauvery in the state of Karnataka. Indiscriminate disposal of industrial and domestic waste, rapid, unchecked urbanization, sand mining are some of the factors that are responsible for the degradation of the river.

In Bangalore about 6.8 million people produce more than 3500 tonnes of waste in a single day. Despite the large infrastructure created for waste management, garbage is currently being disposed rather than managed. It continues to pollute the environment and poses a health risk to collectors as well as the general public.

What is the linkage between safe drinking water and HIV? This piece attempts to find out.

In coastal Karnataka, it is common for households to have bunches of onions hanging in the kitchen or from the roofs of the top floor of houses. They are pink, long tailed and medium sized, and are grown in a hamlet called Vannalli in the coastal taluk of Kumta in North Kanara district.

Ubeshwar Vikas Mandal (UVM), an organisation of Bhil adivasis, has over the past two decades undertaken awareness raising, community organisation and protection and regeneration initiatives for pasturelands, forest areas and water bodies. The UVM-Svaraj project for small-height construction is the latest addition to these activities.

It was 25 years ago this month when villagers in Karnataka undertook an eight km trek to resist massive tree felling at the Kalase forests. In today

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has a mandate to guarantee 100 days of labour in a financial year to those registered under it, under various categories such as natural resource management, drought proofing, water harvesting and conservation, afforestation and tree planting, and horticulture activities.

In February 2007 an agreement was signed between the World Bank, the Central Government, and Tamil Nadu state government for a mega project titled Irrigated Agriculture Modernization & Water-bodies Restoration & Management (IAMWARM). The project cost of US $556 million (Rs 2,547 Cr) was met through a loan from the World Bank.

After the Green Revolution and the large scale use of hybrid seeds, most traditional varieties of seeds and crops have disappeared. While it is true that hybrid seeds give more yields in the beginning, the use of chemical fertilizers results in reduced crops after a few years and leaves the farmers in crisis situations.

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