-The Hindustan Times A few weeks after the NDA came into power, the environment minister announced that the interlinking of rivers project - which had been more or less stalled under UPA 2 - will get an impetus under the new government. The Centre has now started groundwork in the Ken-Betwa project, involving Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, while a detailed project report to link the Damanganga and Pinjal rivers to provide...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As part of its ambitious 'Namami Gange' programme, the government plans to free all villages along the banks of the river from open defecation by 2022 and extend incentives to states to expand sewerage infrastructure in all 118 urban habitations along the river. Both the schemes will cost the government around Rs 52,700 crore. While Rs 51,000 crore has been earmarked for expanding the sewerage infrastructure,...

-Economic and Political Weekly The relationship between depleting water levels and school dropout rates is poorly studied. As chronic water shortages begin to affect more regions of the country, this trend will begin to appear more forcefully. Kishore Jha (kishor.delhi6@gmail.com) is working on child rights with Terre des Homes, Germany. Devender, a 14-year-old boy from Kheeda village in Almora district in Uttarakhand State, studies in Class 8. He spends at least three hours...

-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...

-The Asian Age New Delhi: With traces of toxic metals found in fruits and vegetables grown along the banks of the Yamuna river, the city administration is likely to ban farming with contaminated water from the river. The national capital receives 95 per cent of its vegetables and fruits from other states. Of the remaining five per cent, half of these are grown using the Yamuna's polluted water. As the move...