Visiting Jhamtse Ghatsal, Arunachal Pradesh in January 2020

Jhamtse Ghatsal (http://jhamtsegatsal.org/) is a children's community in Tawang, Arunachal that is run and managed by a very dedicated group. The school is remote and takes 2 days to get to from Gauhati - by car. There is a shorter helicopter ride too - but thats hard to get. We got an opportunity to visit this school to try and help with water management. Like other parts of the country this mountainous region has its own set of water problems too. The area receives between 900mm-1000mm rainfall annually and is earthquake prone which makes it a really tough territory. Some pictures from our trip  

Gompa on the way

Sharath, Suma, Shubha at Sela pass

Frozen river

Martyr Memorial

Permanent rainbow

Prayer wheels that are water operated

Oven at the school

A regular day at the school

Ma Tara statue : A local high point

A 1L liter reservoir near the Ma Tara statue

A glimpse of the children's community from atop a hill

Prayer wheel : water operated

March/April 2020: Pelicans and Painted Storks at Lower Ambalipura Lake

All lakes in Bangalore have been off limits for people since the lockdown started in the last week of March 2020. Lower Ambalipura lake is a 7 acre lake and normally only gets egrets, herons and other small wetland birds as visitors. While painted storks had visited the lake in early 2010-2011, lately they had not been visiting the lake and the assumed reason was that the new high rise buildings had reduced the landing angle required for the larger birds. However, this year in March/April 2020 we have had both Pelicans and Painted Storks visit the lake. Only those people who have balconies adjacent to the lake have had an opportunity to see these birds. Here are some pictures taken by Mathew from Trinity apartments. Thanks to him we get to see these birds

  

Kaikondrahalli Kere Habba - 2020

February 16th 2020 Sunday, Biome Environmental Trust collaborated with ATREE to put up a stall at Kaikondrahalli Kere Habba on “Urban waters of Bangalore”.

The stall was open from morning 9am to evening 4pm.   Various books, primers and posters related to water such as Urban Lakes, Wastewater Treatment,

How to Dig a Borewell, How to Recharge Well were displayed.

Along with this we also demonstrated water testing using FFEM kits.

To make it interactive, we had a quiz of 10 questions for the ones who visited the stall with the prize being a cookie.

We had 20 participants altogether. 

We thank MAPSAS for organising the Kere Habba and giving us the opportunity to participate.

BIOME at the workshop for the State Specific Action Plan (Karnataka State) on 20th Dec 2019

BIOME was invited to the Workshop scheduled on 20-12-2019 in Bengaluru by ACIWRM WRD GoK, to finalise the draft report prepared as per the templates provided from National Water Mission

National Water Mission (Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India) had directed Water Resources Department, Government of Karnataka to prepare "State/UT Specific Action Plans (SSAP) on Water: Towards Water Security, Safety and Sustainability: 2050 for Karnataka State ". Water Resources Department had nominated Advanced Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management (ACIWRM) as a nodal agency to prepare the report. 

ACIWRM with the support of Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) has prepared the draft report on SSAP. A Workshop is organized under the Chairmanship of Registrar/Chief Engineer ACIWRM to finalise the report on 20-12-2019 at 2-30 pm at Hotel Chancery, 10/6 Lavelle road Bengaluru 560001(Next to Kotak Mahindra Bank). You are hereby invited for the Workshop to share your Views/Recommendations if any in finalizing the report for onward submission to National Water Mission. 

Key slides from the day are available here 

For further details and the report. https://www.aciwrm.org/