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FeaturesDisaster dossier: The impact of climate change on Orissa For over a decade, Orissa has been teetering from one extreme weather condition to another: from heatwaves to cyclones, drought to floods. The state has been declared disaster-affected for 95 of the last 105 years. Why is this happening? Is it the result of global warming and climate change? Richard Mahapatra, who has been awarded the CCDS-InfoChangeIndia Fellowship for development reportage, explores these questions in the first of a series of articles More... Drought padayatra: Special Report Agricultural crisis in VidarbhaLured by the promises of seed merchants, Gajanand Dhapse of Kathoda village in Yavatmal cultivated Bt cotton on his 10 acres. His input costs soared, yields dropped, even as the minimum support price dropped. Dhapse is one of hundreds of farmers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region who are experiencing the devastating effects of degraded lands, unsuitable cropping patterns, and lack of accurate information and institutional credit More... Abandoned victims of the Kosi embankmentsJanuary 2005 marked 50 years since the foundation stone was laid for the building of embankments on the Kosi river, to help control the flooding. It also marked 50 years of neglect of the 'embankment victims' who are forced to live trapped within the structures that were supposed to transform their lives More... Coastal folliesOver 40% of India's mangroves have been destroyed. Coral reefs have been damaged in the Gulfs of Kutch and Mannar, and the Andamans. In Great Nicobar, 21 beaches have been lost to sand mining. Post-tsunami, we've got to rebuild our natural coastal defences More... Environmental lessons from the tsunamiIndian law prohibits encroachments within 200 metres of the high tide line and 500 metres in certain sensitive areas, for example where turtles are nesting. But the coastal regulations have been repeatedly diluted to promote commercial interests More... Daily disastersPost-tsunami, organisations are vying to adopt this village or set up that school. But tsunami or no tsunami, the urban fisherfolk and coastal poor live in miserable conditions. Why does it take a sudden disaster to mobilise us? What about the daily disaster of living experienced by India's poor and pollution-impacted communities? More... Adrift on the BrahmaputraThe crisis of livelihood in flood-affected Assam has reduced former landowners to illegal foragers of driftwood from the river More... Living with floodsThere was a time when the people of north Bihar, India's most flood-prone state, celebrated the monsoons and lived with floods. How and when did they become victims of floods, struggling to control the waters? Now, a silent movement to empower citizen's groups to re-establish their cultural ownership over rivers is taking shape More... Survivors of LaturA decade after the Latur quake killed 8,000 and injured 16,000, there is plenty of evidence of poorly planned and executed disaster management interventions: villages relocated several kilometres from the fields where women work; new toilets constructed but unused because there is no water; newly-built settlements so flimsy that people are afraid to sleep in them More... |
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