-The Hindu Floods often wash away rich, weathered soil. Rehabilitation programmes must consider this loss As the rains abate in Kerala and parts of Kodagu district in Karnataka, the loss of lives and the devastation of infrastructure and crops is apparent. However, as rebuilding is planned, what is often ignored is the soil that has been washed away. While roads and houses will be rebuilt, and crop losses compensated partially through insurance,...
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Public transport's share of city trips at all-time low -- and falling -Dipak Kumar Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India’s public transport system is not keeping pace with the auto boom, making commuters shun buses and trains and hop on to two-wheelers and cars. This has resulted in public transport’s share of passenger trips falling to an all-time low, and the situation is getting worse with every passing year. Compared with a share of 60-80% of passenger trips across major Indian cities in 1994, the...
More »Kerala floods: Man-made or nature's fury? -TV Jayan
-The Hindu Business Line The rejection of the the Gadgil panel report, by all the six States along the Western Ghats, has proved to be a costly error The floods of catastrophic dimensions that ravaged Kerala recently have brought into sharp focus the all-round ecological destruction caused by human interference in the State’s hilly terrains. The fact that there were 12 major landslides and hundreds of minor ones within a fortnight in the...
More »Tread carefully when it comes to manipulating natural systems -Kusala Rajendran
-Hindustan Times Whether it is to manage the flood situation of Yamuna or water logging of Kuttanad, we should adopt a similar strategy and promote the “give water its space” concept. Forcing water bodies to give up their space or change their courses, as envisaged in the country-wide river interlinking project will lead to irreversible consequences, learning from the examples before us. The monsoon is an unsettling time in India, with...
More »Empowering domestic workers -Ujjwal K Chowdhury
-MillenniumPost.in Attention must be drawn to the lakhs of domestic helps in India who do not receive any legal protection. The number of domestic workers in India varies from official estimates of around five million to loosely defined unofficial estimates of 10 million. Between 2000 and 2010, women (young girls included) made up for more than 75 per cent of the new entrants into the domestic workforce. In 2010, more than 68...
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