-Down to Earth The need of the hour is to put halt large hydel-power projects in the Himalayas. Can small hydropower plants offer a sustainable solution? Hydropower is a renewable and non-polluting source of energy. India has an economically exploitable and viable hydropower potential, which is estimated to be about 84,000 megawatt at 60 per cent load factor. It has an installed capacity of 148,701 MW, according to the National Hydroelectric Power...

-Article-14.com After tourists grabbed 50% of Covid-19 vaccine slots in Lahaul and Spiti, a region with little Internet connectivity, district officials used Google forms, WhatsApp and paper to book appointments. With no more than 5.1% of Indians fully vaccinated, this approach could help 200 million Indians in rural, remote areas—if vaccines are available. Lahaul & Spiti (Himachal Pradesh): Among those vaccinated when vaccines were made available in this remote Himalayan district was...

-IndiaSpend.com Of India's 83 districts with a Covid-19 test positivity ratio higher than 10% by the week ending June 30, 54% were in the mountainous Himalayan region. Experts ascribe this to infections reaching hilly areas later than the plains, and to low and late testing Mumbai: India's Himalayan region is reporting high levels of Covid-19 positivity, even as the second wave recedes in many parts of India, an IndiaSpend analysis of Ministry...

-Down to Earth Scarcity, conservation, equitable and fair use of limited resources does not apply to them. Migration is an important phenomenon with considerable social, economic and cultural implications. The ‘ghost-villages’ of Uttarakhand are well-known, abandoned by the local population who had left in search of employment, education, health, water and food security, and basic infrastructure. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is not just a health crisis. It has highlighted the underlying economic...

-Down to Earth The country reported 82,170 VIIRS alerts in the fortnight till April 14; Uttarakhand sees significant jump in number   India recorded 82,170 forest fire alerts from April 1-14, 2021 nearly double the number reported during the same period past year, according to Global Forest Watch (GFW), an open-source monitoring application. The country reported 43,031 alerts during the corresponding fortnight in 2020, according to GFW data using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer...