Dear Reader,

Climate change is increasingly real and writ large in India. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, and declining water resources are disrupting local agriculture and livelihoods and putting millions at risk of becoming climate refugees.

However, the greater folly seems to be that governments seem immune to the scale and threat of impending doom. The quest for 'progress' seems to override the imperative of environmentally sustainable and socially undisruptive growth. A clutch of stories this week from the grantees speak to this negligence and apathy.

The Reporter's Collective reports from Uttarakhand on how the state government, in clear and blatant violation of Supreme Court orders, has legitimised riverbed mining along the Ganga and its tributaries. Shockingly, the private company that wins the rights to collect taxes from riverbed mining will also be given priority over others to mine the rivers.

In other words, as the story points out, a mining company could now collect taxes from other miners and also be in charge of preventing the illegal extraction of boulders, sand, and gravel from the state's rivers. The state government has tried to brazen out by "greenwashing" its misdemeanours as efforts necessary to "prevent disasters" in the fragile Himalayan region and generate revenue and employment. But facts and activists on the ground are having none of it.

The fact that climate change and the state of the environment do not find the space they deserve in our public and political space is starkly brought by the fact that the issue was not even paid lip service to the campaign in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls. Article 14 points out that this apathy towards the environment persists by the incumbent government even when the economic costs of the degradation have been put at Rs 3.75 lakh crore, "exceeding combined budgets for education, health, and housing" in India!

From Kerala comes yet another story that reaffirms the government's apathy toward the environment. Last month, a mass fish mortality incidence occurred along the estuarine waters of the lower reaches of the Periyar River in Kerala's Kochi district.

This was primarily attributed to the unregulated discharge from the units in the Eloor, Edayar industrial area, which caused "acute chemical toxicity', leading to the mass deaths of marine life. However, almost predictably, the government has pushed back on the claims. The perceived government collusion with the polluters led to widespread protests by fish farmers, local people and environmental activists. TrueCopy Think goes to the ground to investigate.

And, in Tripura, malaria continues to be a significant threat to life in the tribal areas, claiming many lives each year, especially of children. Despite the state government's ambitious goal to eradicate malaria by 2027, the reality on the ground is difficult and different. Main Bhi Bharat reports from the state on the challenges faced by these vulnerable tribal communities, bringing us first-hand accounts and expert insights on this gap in critical healthcare in the state.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF

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