Climate Mitigation
Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2008: India 200
Climate Change has emerged as an important issue on the business agenda with increasing responsibility being placed on companies to contribute to finding solutions to this urgent problem. An increasing number of companies are investing in environmental
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Urban Transport
Caravan to disaster
Growth in personal vehicles is unsustainable and the cost of congestion too high Roads in urban India are creaking under the weight of the growing number of vehicles—personal vehicles, to be
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Land Ownership
Land rights and ownership in Orissa: status report
This UNDP study focuses on the situation of land rights and ownership in Orissa. Provides concrete suggestions to improve access of the poor to land and highlights the need to arrest processes that are promoting land alienation.
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Groundwater Recharge
Rajasthan tackles drought through pokhars
Rajasthan's Karauli district has been reeling under droughts for the last four years. To tackle this, people of this region are reviving pokhar -- a 200-year-old traditional water harvesting system.
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Drinking water scenario in rural areas in the country: standing committee on rural development (2008-09)
Rural drinking water supply is one of the important subjects
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Climate change and transport: promoting environmentally sustainable transport in the People’s Republic of China
This paper is an analysis of challenges faced by the transport sector and discusses the key issues of sustainability, resource optimization, and climate change. Affordability, transportation equity, and environmental sustainability are some of the key issues discussed in the paper.
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Forests of learning: experiences from research on an adaptive collaborative approach to community forestry in Nepal
This report shares research-based lessons about the catalysation, practice and outcomes of an adaptive collaborative approach to community forestry in Nepal. It focuses on the community forest user group (CFUG) and meso levels, that is, the multistakeholder interface at the subdistrict and district levels.
Aid effectiveness and capacity development: implications for economic growth in developing countries
Although adequate country capacity is considered to be one of the critical missing factors in development outcomes, a lack of understanding of how capacity contributes to economic development and of how to account for the contribution of capacity development to economic growth remains a challenge. The
New vision for Bihar
In a majestic release of bottled-up fury, the Kosi has swept across half of Bihar. The river has gone back to a course it once followed many years ago, inundating roadways and farmlands and leaving an estimated three million people homeless. None of the manmade structures meant to tame the river has been of any use.
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Own your power
Eleven years ago, Pathampara, a 90-minute drive from Kannur, made headlines when it stopped petitioning the government for electricity and instead began generating its own power from a very small facility using the flow of a local stream to run a turbine.
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Building a sustainable future
Over the past half-century, WWF and many other groups have worked to conserve the world's most exceptional ecosystems and endangered species, promote sustainable use of natural resources, and reduce pollution and wasteful consumption — with impressive results. WWF has now embarked on a bold approach to further catalyze change on a large scale.
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Rescuing the land of Krishna
Visitors to Vrindavan and the fabled land of Lord Krishna, called Braj Bhoomi, are often taken aback by its ramshackle, dirty condition. It has dried up ancient water bodies or kunds, denuded forests and lots of garbage. It also has a dreaded mining mafia running around with dynamite, digging holes and blowing up sacred hills.
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Evaluating govt services
At a time when the whole world is looking for an effective model of good governance, it was really a pleasant surprise to come across a document from South Africa entitled, State of the Public Service Report 2008, published by the Public Service Commission of South Africa. It was further encouraging to know that this document is being published annually since the last seven years.
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Monitoring and evaluation of health and socio-economic impacts: Key lessons learnt from a Household Energy & Health Project
The evaluation of household energy programmes is a complex and demanding task, but also very important and worthwhile. In this article, a team from the University of Liverpool presents a range of issues that arose from a series of evaluation studies,
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Learning from the environmentalism of the poor
Suita Narain argues for a more logical and democratic answer to the world’s environmental problems.
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Energy recovery from municipal solid waste in an anaerobic reactor
Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste was carried out in the laboratory at room temperature to assess the bio-energy production from municipal solid waste (MSW) with high total solids content. The total biogas production from the municipal garbage was found to be 3.2 L in 120 days.
Respiratory cancer and inhaled inorganic arsenic in copper smelters workers
Inhalation of high levels of airborne inorganic arsenic is a recognized cause of respiratory cancer. Although multiple epidemiologic studies have demonstrated this association, there have been few analyses of the mathematical relationship between cumulative arsenic exposure and risk of respiratory cancer, and no assessment as to whether and how arsenic concentration may modify this association.
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Concentrations of nitrate and nitrite in groundwater resources of Hamadan Province, Iran
The objective of this study was to investigate and determine the nitrate and nitrite compounds in groundwater resources of Hamadan province, Iran. Totally 280 samples of water were examined for nitrate and nitrite during a period of six months from February to September 2007 belonging to eight cities of Hamadan Province.
Assessment of methane emission from municipal solid wastes disposal sites
Assessment of landfill gases (LFG) with appropriate methodology for control of green house gas emission as well as possibility for waste to energy conversion are the prime objectives of the study. Generation of LFG from a particular heap of wastes can not be interlinked with the potential of LFG generation.
Bharatpur wetland: future desert?
The Keoladeo National Park (KNP), better known as the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, is one of the world’s most renowned wetlands, famous for its avifauna. But today KNP is facing a huge shortage of water. With a growing shortage of water and feed, the birds no longer find the Park suitable. (Correspondence)
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Quality of ground water used for irrigation in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, India
The ground water samples collected from different tehsils of Ujjain district were analysed in the laboratory for electrical conductivity (EC), pH, cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+) and anions (CO32-, HCO3-, Cl- and SO42-). The ground water quality map of the district was generated using ERDAS-IMAGINE 8.7 software showing different categories.
Multivariate analysis of groundwater resources in Ganga-Yamuna Basin (India)
Groundwater quality data on physico-chemical, bacteriological and heavy metal concentrations in three cities (Faridabad, Allahabad and Varanasi) in Ganga-Yamuna basin was subjected to multivariate analysis using SPSS. The factors extracted showed high loading (>0.3) of various parameters, such Cl, conductivity, TDS, hardness, Na, Mg and SO4 indicating contamination due to leaching of pollutants.
Plutonium from above-ground nuclear tests in milk teeth: Investigation of placental transfer in children
Occupational risks, the present nuclear threat, and the potential danger associated with nuclear power have raised concerns regarding the metabolism of plutonium in pregnant women.
Changes in pest infestation levels, self-reported pesticide use, and permethrin exposure during pregnancy after the 2000–2001
Widespread residential pesticide use throughout the United States has resulted in ubiquitous, low-level pesticide exposure. The mix of active pesticide ingredients is changing in response to 2000–2001 regulations restricting use of the organophosphorus insecticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon. The study aimed to determine the impact of U.S.
Development, displacement and resistance: The law and the policy on land acquisition
Peasants across India are opposing development projects which displaced them from their land, habitat, livelihood and environment. They are questioning the paradign of development itself which is so heavily loaded against them. The law on land acquisition is central to the understanding of this hostility to development.
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Global warming and its impact on India: standing committee on science & technology
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests in its meeting held on 20th August, 2007, decided to take up for examination the aspects relating to Global Warming and its Impact on India and report thereon.
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Andhra Pradesh human development report 2007
This is the first Human Development Report of Andhra Pradesh. The state has several unique features-development of participatory institutions, innovative poverty alleviation programs, spectacular demographic transition, pursuit of
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National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: From rights to livelihoods
NREGA is the culmination of a long struggle by mass organizations on the issue of providing a minimum right to work. NREGA is clear on the fact that this right is available to all rural communities. To operationalize this Act, the state of poverty in different parts of the country was studied and to start with the worst affected districts were taken up.
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Status and potential of fisheries and aquaculture in Asia and the Pacific 2008
The Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) is committed to acting as a regional consultative forum, providing its member countries, regional organizations and fisheries professionals in the region with the opportunity to review, discuss and decide on actions and challenges facing the region’s fisheries sector.
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Sodium chloride as an estimation indicator of ground waters pollutant load from land surfaces of coastal Karst
In order to estimate ground water pollutant load from land surfaces of coastal karstic basin, some ingredients of water, such as mol ratio of Na/Cl as permanent ingredients of wastewaters, have been used as indicators in this paper.
Ground water quality in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu along Noyyal river
The ground water quality in Coimbatore city along the Noyyal river during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in 2005 is discussed in this paper. Water samples were collected from 12 wells on either side of the river.
Simultaneous determination of trace heavy metals in ambient aerosols
The simultaneous determination of heavy metals associated with airborne particulate matter in the atmosphere of the city of Isfahan (Iran) was performed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after pre-concentration with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate.
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Impact of chlorination on the incidence of cancers and miscarriages in two different campus communities in India
Long-term impacts of drinking chlorinated water on the incidence of cancers and miscarriages were assessed in a population-based cross sectional study conducted in the two campus communities of IIT Kanpur (IITK) and IIT Kharagpur (IITKgp). IITK has been using untreated groundwater since the community was established in 1963, while IITKgp has been using chlorinated water for more than 30 years.
