How Diego Garcia became a US military base

The island of Majuli on the river Brahmaputra has been under constant threat from floods as well as rising erosion levels. Tension has simmered between development agencies responsible for flood control and the local people who have opposed the structural measures. The proposed Bogibeel bridge has evoked concerns that the conflict will see an escalation.

In all likelihood, it was ordinary fisherfolk that created the extraordinary water harvesting system of Venice. Islands of the lagoon were densely populated

The lagoon city began as a locality of fisherfolk in the fifth century AD. It seems safe to assume the fisherfolk created the system of storing rainwater. As the city acquired eminence and power, it only invested more time and money in maintaining this system. Until now, that is. Town planning of yore can still be seen in glimpses. All roofs remain tiled.

This is a typical Venetian locality: houses built around paved squares called campi, with a well at the centre (right). Because water harvesting was at the centre of the city's life; there isn't a clear number, but Venice would have an estimated 4,000 wells. None of the wells have pulleys, probably because the water table was quite shallow. The slope is against the well, and the courtyards are marked by white stone stripes, indicating the path runoff took on its way to the seepage holes. It would have taken something to keep seawater at bay.

Venice isn t just canals and aristocrats. anupam mishra gets off a gondola and stumbles into well workmanship and rainwater use

A writing technique used in Assam's Majuli islands since 600 AD

Human enterprise knows no bounds, and the people of Maldives have proved this. They have built a new island to contain the overflowing population of the capital Male. "The project was launched

Human enterprise knows no bounds, and the people of Maldives have proved this. They have built a new island to contain the overflowing population of the capital Male. "The project was launched

Majuli, a river island within the two arms of the mighty Brahmaputra river, is a site having extreme historical and cultural importance, and warrants immediate exposure to the scientific community. The island faces an acute erosion problem as no permanent anti-erosion measures based on proper geohydrological models have been adopted so far. The land area of the island, as evidenced from the IRS satellite imagery of 1998, is 577.65 km2 compared to 1245 km2 according to available historical records. The available data indicate an erosion rate of 1.9 km2 / yr for the period of 1920–98.

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