Author: TVW News India Bureau

Located close the commercial city of Indore, Dewas saw rapid industrialisation in the 1970s and ’80s. Thanks to its favourable location, with a railhead and good access to raw materials, the town attracted several textile units, soybean processing plants and pharmaceutical plants. However, this boon turned sour in the following decades, from the 1990s onward,…

A micro-irrigation initiative partnered by the state is a win-win for farmers in all aspects Good earth, Bhikabhai More at his farm in Khoraj village, Gandhinagar Clusters of tiny plastic pipes snake around the neat rows of guava trees interspersed with musk melon plants at the five-hectare farm of Ramesh Bhai Bhikabhai More in Khoraj…

Usuma village in Cuttack district had for long witnessed frequent fights and even serious law and order issues over rights on the canal water coming from the Mahanadi river 15 km away. But not anymore. A successful ‘pani pan­chayat’ formed in 2000, comprising Usuma and nine other villa­ges and their 420 hectares of cultivable land,…

A third standard dropout, M. Shivashankar Reddy recalls sleeping on gunny bags in his childhood. Today, the 49-year-old grows pomegranate, musk melon, grapes and vegetables on the three parcels of land he owns in Parasannayapalli vill­age in Andhra Pradesh’s Ananthapuram district, earning Rs 3-4 lakh per acre. “We created 10 ponds across three parcels of…

“It’s a god-sent opportunity,” says N. Purushotham, 49, about how an assured supply of irrigation water has boosted his farming. Until 2017, there was just enough water to raise a single paddy crop a year on his two-acre farm in Telangana’s Ranga Reddy district. But ever since the Pahalwan Talab in Shabad village was revived,…

Maalav maati gahan gambhir, dag dag roti, pag pag neer (the soil in Malwa is fertile, food and water are available in abundance). For centuries, these lines had signified the prosperity of Malwa in western Madhya Pradesh. But Dewas, in the heart of the Malwa region, was an exception. The district was facing acute shortages…

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Water-guzzling crops and heavy use of fertilisers have both contributed to Punjab’s water crisis The damage, A woman in Punjab’s Fazilka district collecting polluted water from a handpump for domestic use Punjab is currently facing three daunting problems: i) polluted canals and rivers; ii) depleting groundwater; and iii) polluted groundwater. The three problems are interlinked,…

Standing on the bridge on river Papagni in Andhra Pradesh’s YSR Kadapa district, Chirutani Pratap points to the shimmering rivulets in the dry river bed below. “We have begun seeing this only in the past two years. Usually, the river flows like a stream just for four months during the rainy season every year,” says…

How various states in India are tackling their groundwater woes to ensure a year-round supply of water for consumption and irrigation. To the fields, Dewas farmers load pipes, used to transfer water from the farm ponds to the fields, on a cart. Photo by Yasir Iqbal Parched earth India is undergoing the worst water crisis…