Why Volunteer?

The present environmental crisis has thrown up a new set of challenges for India and its citizens. Like most developing countries, India needs to seize every opportunity to grow, but do so in a sustainable manner. We cannot follow the highly toxic development model of the West and need to look inward for solutions to our problems. Awareness of these issues is however sorely lacking in the country. By volunteering for the programme you can enrich yourself with a wealth of knowledge and a perspective that will enable you to contribute meaningfully to society and to your profession.

New national water policy in the pipeline

A new and approved National Water Policy is expected to be in place by 2013. The revised policy will take on board crucial issues such as water demand management, equitable distribution, water pricing, stringent regulatory mechanism and allocating priority to water for life-support and ecology over industry. The new approach to the water policy is likely to recognise water as finite and variable. This is supported by the mid-term appraisal report of the XIth Plan, in which the Planning Commission recognised the need to "take a holistic view of the hydrological cycle" to solve the water crisis as India's water situation is even more serious than originally assessed.

Urban Rainwater Harvesting

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Diesel hides behind CNG

What’s going on? First the key partners of the Central Pollution Control Board -- IOC, and NEERI -- involved with yet to be released source apportionment study made claims publicly that LPG is the most polluting fuel in our cities. Now in quick succession a second study follows from CPCB that ranks CNG as the “worst” fuel and Euro II-III diesel as the “best”. No other government in the world has every branded CNG as worse than Euro II-III diesel.

Greening my home: How do I reduce my energy footprint?

Why we must think of energy efficient life style? Construction industry in India is growing at a rate of 9.2 per cent per annum as against the world average of 5.5 per cent per annum. The construction industry is also nearly 10 percent of the GDP. It is one of the largest in terms of economic expenditure, use of raw materials and environmental impacts.

AGARTALA

  Agartala is the capital city of one of our eastern most states of India, Tripura. Even with much smaller vehicle numbers the city is witnessing increase in pollution levels and severe congestion. The city is built for walking and cycling and buses. The city must retain its strength and not let cars take over the space.