Under threat

A proposed dam is set to change the landscape in the Pindar ghati--host to the last free flowing tributary of the Alaknanda. Bharat Lal Seth …

View from the top

Planners must stop looking down at hill-stations

High risk

Problem: Tall buildings risky in high seismic zones; Status: Hill-stations are getting concretised and growing vertically; Challenge: Use local …

What goes down

Problem: Lack of space for garbage disposal; inadequate sewerage; Status: Garbage disposed on hill slopes ends in streams/rivers; Challenge: …

Defying gravity

Problem: Terrain forbids water supply systems that work in plains; Status: Water crisis in peak season every year; Challenge: Develop …

Local travails

Problem: Tourist influx too large; earnings flow downhill; Status: Residents forced to share meagre facilities with tourists; Challenge: Regulate …

Remembering 2013 Uttarakhand Floods

In June 2013, flashfloods in Uttarakhand wiped out settlements and decimated lives. Here’s a throwback to our investigation into the …

A dark tunnel

Twenty-nine workers were killed in a landslide at the Tehri dam. The contractor building the dam has blamed the "weak mountains" for …

Wind farm threat to forests

Blasting causes animals and birds to abandon the area

Boom

Problem: Terrain forbids sprawl as in cities in the plains; Status: Alarming population density (people per sq km); Challenge: Policy question is:…

‘MoEF violated Supreme Court order’

Ministry’s own panel says it should not have given clearances to two Uttarakhand projects

Floods, earthquakes, landslides: Why Arunachal’s Etalin hydel project can be a worry

Formation of glacial lakes driven by climate change and sesimic risks pose threat to nature and life; project’s environmental …

Himalayan blunders

Himalayan plunder: Hydroelectric plans in Arunachal will effect downstream Assam too

Arunachal Pradesh is highly susceptible to landslides; debris flowing downstream will change river behaviour, fear experts 

Lavasa: Dream for one, nightmare for many

Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava finds how people affected by Lavasa are coping with the destruction it has caused

The past and present of rivers

Author(s): Karuna Futane We are a generation that has turned flowing fresh water rivers to rivers of sewage and garbage. We have lost rivers. …

This is what Lavasa looks like

Bhutan’s experiments with happiness

The idyllic Buddhist kingdom believes that peace and happiness should take preference over material growth. In a world beset by inequities and …

Lavasa exposed

By its looks, the place could be mistaken for Portofino, a fishing village-cum-resort in Italy—multi-coloured buildings crowd a waterfront …