overview 1-2

Overview … … … … … … … … …1-2

Challenges for the coming year … …3-4

Major activities and outcome

Right to Clean air campaign … …5-7

Urban rainwater harvesting … …8-10

River pollution campaign … … …11-13

City water-waste management …14-15

Natural resource management …16-18

Sustainable industrialisation …19-22

Climate change campaign … …23-24

Anti-toxin campaign … … … … …24

Science & environment reportage 25-27

Anil Agarwal green college … …28-29

Media resource centre … … … …30-31

Environment education … … …32-34

Knowledge portal … … … … …35-36

Website … … … … … … … … … …37

Institutional development

Performance monitoring … … …38-39

Human resource development … …39

Volunteer Programme … … … … …40

Annual plans 2008-2009 … … …41-46

Financial performance … … … … …47

Annual Progress Report 2007-08 11

The year 2007-08 was both a good year and abad year. What was good was that we were

able to achieve many advocacy objectives in theareas of urban transport and toxins; brought outthe sixth State of India’s Environment Report;and, launched the India Environment Portal. Wealso brought out two new manuals – one onwaste-water recycling and the other for theGreen Schools Programme. But the year was notgood in terms of the fact that we failed to bringout some of the other publications that wereplanned and we were not able to launch the

environmental course forstudents. The sixth citizens’ report

on the State of theEnvironment (SOE), Rich lands, poor people —Is Sustainable MiningPossible? was publishedin November 2007. Thiswas significant becausethe last SOE waspublished in the year

1999. The report is the result of CSE’s work onmining issues, which began with the mediafellowships that were offered in 2005. The book isalso very timely as the mining sector is one of thehottest sectors in terms of corporate interest. Thebook is an attempt to find answers to how the poor, who are living on lands rich with mineralresources, can benefit from theexploitation of minerals. Thereport is being released acrossthe country in collaboration withlocal groups to ensure that local communities develop anownership over the issue.

Over the year, it has beenreleased in four state capitals ofBhubaneshwar, Panjim, Kolkataand Ranchi by the stateGovernors. These states arewitnessing intense conflicts overland and the endorsement of theGovernors to the issues flaggedby CSE in the book served tosend a strong signal to the

respective state governments. CSE was alsorequested to address the Group of Ministers onNational Mineral Policy on the issue of mining.This is a powerful forum to influence policies onmining and minerals.

We launched the India environment portal inApril 2008. The portal is a collaborative effortwith the Knowledge Commission and we hope tomake the portal the central source ofenvironmental information for everyone sourcinginformation from NGOs, academic institutionsand government institutions. Environment beingan inter-disciplinary issue, information is oftenscattered among many different departments andwe have found that sourcing information is oneof the most difficult tasks.

To kick-off the portal, we have providedaccess to CSE’s vast information resources. Thisincludes the entire archive of the fortnightlymagazine, Down To Earth – roughly 40,000researched articles and information from CSE’slibrary in the form of newspaper articles,magazine articles, books and documents. All thiscan be precision-searched using CSE’senvironmental thesaurus that can go to the where,the who and the what of any information a personis looking for. In the second phase, an effort willbe made to collaborate with NGOs, researchinstitutions and government departments tocreate a system so that they can contributeinformation to the portal.

Overview The year 2007-08

Mining book release function in Kolkata

Annual Progress Report 2007-0822

The Right to Clean Air campaign was able toinfluence the Delhi government to takemeasures to curb the use of diesel. It alsoinfluenced the government to take baby steps tofavour public transport in the form of reducedtaxes for buses and the launch of the Bus RapidTransport Corridor in Delhi. Finally, it was ableto get on board policymakers to set fueleconomy norms for vehicles in India. The anti-toxin campaign also had good results becausethe government has finally announced norms forpesticide residues in soft drinks. CSE also madesignificant contributions to the government’sapproach to the NREGA programme by showingthem that the programme would be an important tool to address rural poverty by creating durablenatural assets.

Another significant work has been its workon climate change. CSE was one of the firstorganisations to introduce the issue of equity inclimate change negotiations, way back in 1992and actively campaigned for equity and justice inall the climate meetings. The release of the fourthassessment report of the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change in 2007 triggered worldwideconcern and interest in the issue of climatechange. CSE’s director participated in seminarsand workshops across the world, appeared innational and international media and was made amember of key national and internationalcommittees to plan for actions to deal withclimate change.

Institutionally, the major achievement hasbeen the setting up of the impact monitoringsystem. The entire office is geared to identify theimpacts of their activities and document it as ithappens. Information is collected from thedifferent teams and common indicators such asmedia coverage or website hits and letters aresourced from specific units. In terms of humanresource development, the organisation has

stabilised to a great extent. Staff exits are mostlybecause of prevailing market incentives in manysectors such as media, IT and marketing. CSE willalso have to address the challenge of foreign NGOssetting up base here offering better compensations.

A significant weak area has been ourinability to go beyond short-term trainingworkshops in the Anil Agarwal Green Centre. Wehave been planning to launch a longer-termcourse for students for some years and theprogramme, scheduled to go off in October waspostponed due to lack of response. We were alsonot able to put in place many of attendantsystems such as marketing, reading materials etc.We plan to address these weaknesses and pushthe AAGC to a higher level of learning.

We were also not able to complete a couple ofmajor publications – one, a state of the art reporton urban water management and the other, amanual on water harvesting. Clearly, the work ofproducing books is a long-term one, and it can bespeeded up only if staff capacity is fully in place.Therefore, it seems that we are underestimating thetime that it would take to produce a book that willmeet internal quality standards. We are working tostrengthening the editing capacity in the office sothat this work can be both speeded up andimproved in terms of quality.

The year also closed with some awards.CSE’s Director was awarded the inauguralenvironment award of the Prince Albert II ofMonaco Foundation for her work in highlightingthe need for water security and the use ofrainwater harvesting in India. She also receivedthe Dr Jean Mayer Global Citizenship awardgiven by the Institute for Global Leadership atTufts University in recognition of her work onsustainable development. The ShiromaniInstitute, New Delhi, awarded her with theBharat Shiromani award for her significantcontribution in the field of science andenvironment.

Mining book release function in Panjim, Goa

Sunita Narain receives Award of the Prince Albert II ofMonaco Foundation


Some of the key developmental challenges thatwere thrown up last year were reported on

and analysed in Down To Earth during the year.In terms of more consistent programmes, CSEwill address these challenges as follows.

Climate change: In the last year, the release ofthe fourth Assessment report of the IPCCcatalysed global attention on the issue of climatechange. While there is much talk anddiscussions, there is very little clarity on how togo forward and what needs to be done. CSE hasbeen working on these issues for more than 15years arguing for moving away from fossil fuelsand for equity in global negotiations.

For the first time in history, the world facesthe challenge of re-inventing a new energysystem in order to deal with climate change. Thiscan only be done as a co-operative enterprise.And the first condition that needs to be met forcooperation is that everyone must feel that theframework for cooperation is fair to all.Therefore, there is no getting away from the factthat all negotiations or contracts to deal withclimate change must be founded on theprinciples of equity and justice. This is CSE’s coreposition on climate change.

Secondly, measures to deal with climatechange must be “real” as opposed to “creativecarbon accounting”. All studies on climatechange show that the delinking of economicgrowth and CO2 emission will take place only if

we recreate a new energy system built on zerocarbon energy systems. Developing countries,particularly, must move to this new energyparadigm now when they are making biginvestments for energy. If they follow theexample of the West and get locked into thefossil fuel sector, they will have to make freshinvestments to get out of it. This would not onlybe expensive but also unnecessarily disruptive.But unfortunately, what is being done today is, infact, only creative carbon accounting in the formof myriad schemes and aid projects.

Developing countries, therefore, have tocreate a market for zero-carbon energy systems,which can compete with the fossil fuel system. Atthe same time public policies to support thecreation of new energy market have to be inplace, so that the transition happens in the mosteconomically effective way, minimising impactson our economic systems in the short term.

Water and rural poverty: The country hasalready begun to see the impacts of climatechange in many ways. Over 85 per cent of thecultivated area in this country is either directlydependent on rain or depends on rain torecharge its groundwater. The fact that climatechange leads to highly variable rainfall wasevident from the widespread floods and droughtsin some parts of the country such asBundelkhand, Karauli and Dungarpur districts.Harvesting rainwater has proved to be a practicalway of improving rural assets and there are manygood examples of communities coming togetherto harvest rainwater. CSE will continue toadvocate for rainwater harvesting and highlightsuccess stories.

The National Rural Employment GuaranteeAct, if implemented wisely, could prove to be anopportunity to put a floor to rural their povertyby helping to create durable, natural assets andgiving people control over them. CSE has beenadvocating that good land-water-forestmanagement has immense potential to lift ruraleconomy, based on several success stories fromdifferent parts of the country. The NREGA willnow be implemented throughout the country.This programme gives priority to the creation ofnatural assets and has the potential to bringabout huge benefits to rural India. CSE will

Challenges for the coming year


continue to advocate for the poor to be vestedwith rights to natural resources and for the stateto create systems by which local communitiescreate durable natural assets.

Urbanisation - Water and transport: India israpidly urbanising and very soon half the totalpopulation will be urban. Like industrialisation,urbanisation, done the Western way, is capitaland energy intensive. Even as we are trying toaddress global warming, cities are becomingenergy guzzlers. Urban transport is a crucialfactor that defines sustainable urbanisation andthere is an urgent need for cities — particularly indeveloping countries — to prioritise publictransport. CSE has a specific focus on this issueand we will work towards finding solutions forthis challenge.

Another crucial element of urbanisation is ofcourse water supply and sanitation. Despiteofficial figures that claim nearly 100% urbanwater supply and sanitation, the reality is vastlydifferent. In the area of water, the urbanparadigm is one of being a parasite on ruralareas. Water is almost always brought to citiesfrom rural areas and the waste taken away topollute the rivers and water bodies. Moving to aparadigm where cities become self sufficient in

water by harvesting rain within the city, andfinding ways to treat the waste within the citywould not only result in more equitable andefficient water supply and waste managementbut also reduce energy consumption. CSE willcontinue its work in this area.

Sustainable industrialisation: The country isalso firmly on the path of industrialisation toachieve the objectives of economic growth. Hereagain there is a challenge of ensuring that thefruits of industrialisation will reach the poor andthat the integrity of the natural environment isnot destroyed. Although the country has aplethora of laws and policy measures to controlpollution, industrial pollution remains a majorconcern. Clearly, the strategy of command andcontrol, technological measures, zoning, fiscalincentives, and use of economic instrumentshave not been effective. This is partly due to theweak enforcement regime, and partly due to thelack of scientific and technical capacities withincivil society groups. Finding a way toindustrialise without compromisingenvironmental integrity, thus, poses a greatchallenge. CSE will address these issues byworking with the industrial sector, the regulatorysector as well as civil society groups.


During last year (2007-08), the Right to CleanAir Campaign team largely focused on

building outreach on strategic policy issues topush for policy change. The key areas ofcampaign included pushing for fuel economystandards for vehicles, addressing dieselemissions and building public transport in Delhi.CSE also worked to create awareness aboutcongestion and pollution, specifically byhighlighting the issue of small and cheap cars.

Objective: Frame fuel economy regulations

In early 2007, the team had raised concerns overlack of fuel economy regulations. The teamorganized press conference to release the findingsof its study and also wrote to Prime Minister,Finance Minister and others regarding the urgentneed for fuel economy standards in the country.On October 4, 2007, CSE organised the roundtablediscussions on ‘the challenges of developing fueleconomy regulations in India that broughttogether experts, policy makers, and industryrepresentatives to discuss the principles that mustguide setting of fuel economy regulations in India.It was a good gathering and had all the keypeople. The event got prominent coverage in themedia. This catalysed the decision to establish fueleconomy standards for vehicles.

As a fall out the Bureau of Energy Efficiency(BEE), has signed a memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) with the The PetroleumConservation Research Association (PCRA) toestablish fuel economy standards under theEnergy Conservation Act, 2001. CSE prepared anissue paper for policy guidance and madepresentations to PCRA and officials of Ministry ofShipping, Road Transport and Highways(MoSRTH) and Automotive Research Associationof India (ARAI). CSE’s paper was widelydistributed among concerned officials and CSEwas involved in all decision-making processes.

Objective: Carry forward the work on diesel

Delhi government comes up with a dieselplan: The diesel campaign gathered momentumthis year. The team raised public concern overDelhi losing its air quality gains due to rising

number of vehicles and growing dieselization ofcar fleet. Media events were organized to takethis message out. Roundtable discussions wereorganized on December 10, 2007 to debate thisissue with the key stakeholders. This drew goodparticipation from the car industry, regulators,engine developers, emissions control componentmanufacturers and also International expertsfrom the International Council on CleanTransportation (ICCT).

The team carried out a detailed analysis ofthe new emissions data from the Automotiveresearch Association of India to compare the keyemissions of petrol and diesel car. Thisdemonstrated how emissions from Euro III dieselcars are several times higher than the petrol cars.The results of this analysis were released to themedia that made considerable impact.

Following the release of this study the Delhigovernment announced plans to cut dieselemissions in the NCR. The plan approved by theCabinet proposed an Environment Cess on dieselfuel. The revenue from this cess will be used tocreate the Air Ambience Fund. Delhi Chiefminister Sheila Dikshit also wrote to the Uniongovernment to introduce Euro IV diesel fuel andstandards in the NCR by 2008-09. Simultaneously,the city government has also targeted to phaseout light duty commercial vehicles on diesel.Financial incentives will be provided to vehicleowners interested in converting to CNG.

Major activities and outcome RIGHT TO CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN(Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Vivek Chattopadhyaya, Priyanka Chandola & Jayeeta Sen)


Objective: Take a bus’ campaign

Policy paper on bus system: The team hasprepared a dossier on the state of bus transportin Delhi and India. Based on the research, areport on bus transport prepared for the EPCAthat was submitted to the Supreme Court Theanalysis showed that the number of buses fallwoefully short of the number (10000) that wasmandated by the Supreme court in 1998. Thisissue was also raised publicly in the media. Theseactivities led to the decision by the Delhigovernment to buy 6000 new buses to augmentbus transport in Delhi.

Tax measures for public transport and cleanand efficient vehicles: In January 2008, CSEwrote a letter to the Finance Minister for 2008-09budget demanding tax measures to promotemore sustainable means of transport and cleanerair for all in cities. A press conference wasorganized based on the letter sent to the FinanceMinister. We had demanded • zero excise duty on buses to lower the cost

of investments for the city governments thatare planning to build public transportsystem;

• Ensure that existing excise taxes on cars isnot reduced which would only add to thesubsidy to car owners. Already car ownersare enjoying enormous hidden subsidies inIndian cities;

• Increase the Central excise duty on diesel

vehicles to reduce distortions because of fuelprice differential.

• Link taxes with fuel efficiency and emissionsof vehiclesThis led to reduction in central excise on

buses from 16 per cent to 12 per cent. This thougha step forward, is not at all adequate to address theneed of the public transport that now needsurgent attention in our cities. This reduction is toosmall to make a difference and will afford only amarginal cost advantage. The proposed excise cutto 12 per cent is not enough to lower the cost ofinvestment in cities that are planning hugeinvestments to increase the bus fleet.

Objective: Raising public concerns overair quality

CSE raised media awareness about the ozonebuild-up, high levels of air pollution, particularlyduring Diwali. These were well covered by themedia. CSE also prepared a detailed reportcomparing the preparedness of Beijing and Delhito two major sporting vents, namely theOlympics and the Asiad Games. CSE found thatBeijing is making an effort to make long-terminvestments made for the Olympics pay itself interms of long-term positive health impacts. CSEalso prepared an analysis of the implications oflow cost cars for congestion and pollution.Cheap cars are expected to be a dominant trendin Indian in the years to come. A press releasewas organised and it generated much debate anddiscussion in the media.


The team was invited to be a resource person byseveral groups and for crucial policy Inputs. Selectexamples of inputs provided are:• On the status of the LPG programme in Indian

cities for the Indian Auto LPG coalition. • On fuel economy regulations for Emission

Controls Manufacturers Association at cinferenceon Auto Fuel policy beyond 2010.

• On policy for public transport for the PlanningCommission.

• Anumita RoyChowdhry attended theinternational conference on transportation inMumbai

• On climate change for the European ParliamentCommittee organised by the EuropeanCommission

• On energy efficient fuels for the Stakeholders’Dialogue Leading to Collaborative Initiatives forEnergy Efficient Fuels organised by the USEFI,New Delhi

• On sustainable development for the NationalConference of High Court Justices organised bythe National Judicial Academy in Bhopal

• On climate change in south Asia for the SeventhAnnual Regional Meeting on “Climate Justice forRealisation of MDGs: Southern Perspectives andVoices” organised by One World South Asia, ITSConference

• On the Right to Clean Air campaign at theInternational Bucket Brigade Conferenceorganised by India Community EnvironmentalMonitoring, Jamia Hamdard University

Media coverageBus crisis: The issue of the current bus crisis in Delhicaught the attention of the media during the period.Several newspapers such as Asian Age, OneWorld.net, UK, Sahara Samay and Dainik Jagarancarried CSE’s press release on the issue.

Fiscal incentives: The Hindustan Times, The Timesof India, The Hindu, TV channels. Beijing story: TheTimes of India, The Tribune and The Hindu.

Small car: CSE’s position on small car issue was alsoreceived a lot of attention in both national andinternational media. The Independent and the Reutershad done articles on this issue. During the Auto Expo

2007 in New Delhi, Sustran listserv carried livelydiscussions following a note posted by Anumita onthe implications of Nano and transportationproblems. The discussion revolved around theconcerns raised by us. The note and the discussionswere also posted by Eric Britton in another networkcalled New Mobility Cafe.

Team members were interviewed by TheHeinrich Boll Foundation on the small car issue fortheir newsletter. They were also quoted on small carsissue in National Public Radio, USA ,for theprogramme ‘On Point’. Other media interviews wereby ‘Living on Earth’, Canadian Broadcasting Centre;‘Radio International’, Herald Tribune; The New YorkTimes; OneWorld South Asia; Central chronicle andsify.com, and, CNBC and IBN7.

Print media mentions included New York Times,Guardian and The Independent, World PoliticsReview, San Francisco Chronicle, Frontline, andwebsites such as http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ JA17Df01.html, http://www.abc. net.au/news/stories/ 2008/01/11/ 2136595.htm

Mr Praful Bidwai, a veteran columnist wrote anarticle in Times of India, based on right to clean aircampaign material on dieselisation of cars and publictransport crisis in Delhi. Moneycontrol.cominterviewed the team for their article ‘ Should dieselcars be banned’?

Ms Archana Prasad from Jamia Millia IslamiaUniversity requested CSE’s permission to reprint thechapter ‘choking cities’ from the book ‘Slow Murder’in a reader that she was editing for MacmillanPublishers on environment and development forstudents.

Ms Barbara Nicholls, BBC who is making adocumentary on the CNG programme in Delhiinterviewed APC members for her documentary.

The team participated in media interviews onAzaad News, FM Rainbow’s Ek Duniya Ek Aawaaz,OneWorld South Asia and Lok Sabha TV talk show.

Feedback from readersThe issue on the small car as well as the editorialbrought in a big response. The report was also sent toindustrialists and several of them replied back agreeingwith the issues raised. We received letters fromMahindra & Mahindra Limited, Satnam Singh, AutoBeatASIA and from DLR-Transportation Studies, Germany.

Impact indicators


THE URBAN RAINWATER HARVESTINGPROGRAMME(Salahuddin Saiphy & Sushmita Sengupta)

Key objectives of training and providingtechnical help by designing rooftop systems wereprioritised. Awareness creation activities were tobe continued. The technical research tasks weresubsumed into the manual, which was part of thecapacity building objective.

Objective: To build capacities in societyto undertake decentralised andrational urban water management

The focus for the year was the trainingprogrammes. We conceptualised two types oftraining programmes – basic and advancedprogrammes. These were successfully conductedfor students and professionals. Although only 4workshops were planned initially, a total of 6training workshops were conducted for over 250participants. The response from the studentcommunity was exceptional though there werelogistical problems in terms of capacity to pay for

travel, boarding, lodging as well as for thecourse, which was highly discounted. We gotrequests from several colleges across India toconduct similar programme in their colleges, asstudents were unable to afford travel and lodgingcosts in New Delhi.

Madhya Pradesh, May 27, 2007: Workshop forplumbers, masons, and contractors incollaboration with the Municipal Corporation ofGwalior (MCG). The MCG brought together morethan 100 participants and later issued them

Training workshop in Gwalior

Water programmes

CSE started its work in the area of water management by working to create wide awareness about theneed for small decentralised systems of water conservation and went on to focus on all aspects of

urban water management. CSE will in the coming years sharpen its programme focus on resolving issues– from legislation, technology, institution and policy – in this sub-sector of urban water management.

The overall objective of CSE’s programmes on water is to bring policy change that would ensuresustainable, equitable and participatory management of water resources. But CSE works in a focusedmanner on three specific dimensions of urban water management. These are:

Specific objective

To mainstream the idea of rainwater harvestingwithin the policy and practice of water managementfor meeting the basic water needs of the people.

To bring about a change in national policies toensure clean rivers with the aim of providing safedrinking water to all.

To bring policy change to ensure that citiessource water and clean up their waste water atthe city level and cities do not become 'waterparasites' on rural India.

Programme

Urban rainwater harvesting: A programme topopularise rain water harvesting systems in urban areas.

River pollution programme: A programmethat will look at issue of river pollution from theperspective of a complete river basin and look atcurrent and alternate water treatmenttechnologies, waste disposal management andwater quality monitoring.

City water-waste management programme:A programme that will promote decentralisedsewage management technologies and rationalurban water usage.


certificates and official identity cards authorisingthem to undertake rainwater harvesting.

Chattisgarh, August 10, 2007: A briefingworkshop on rainwater harvesting was given tothe officials of the district administration ofSarguja district. About 60 officials participatedincluding the District Collector, DevelopmentCommissioner, Tehsildars, CEO’s and BDO’s ofall blocks of Sarguja district. The districtadministration is planning to come out withlegislations on harvesting rainwater andorganising training programmes.

New Delhi, September 24-28, 2007: Theannouncement for a training programme forstudents on ‘Urban Water Management’ fromSeptember 24-28, 2007 brought overwhelmingresponse. More than 80 students from differentparts of the country registered for the training.Since we do not have the facilities toaccommodate all of them, we selected 48students from different universities in India and 1each from Italy and U.K. The programmecomprised of exercises and a complete hands ontraining to students including site visits.

New Delhi, October 29-November 02, 2007:Students of two different colleges in Jaipurattended this programme.

West Bengal, November 19, 2007: One daybriefing workshop was organised for officials of

Burdwaan district, West Bengal. The city mayor,Additional District Magistrate, SDM and other keyofficials of the district attended the programme.As a fall out of this programme, the districtadministration is currently developing a RainCentre with CSE’s inputs.

Maharashtra, December 27-29, 2007: A three-day long training programme on rainwaterharvesting was organised at Shri Guru GobindSingh Institute of Engineering and Technology,Nanded, Maharashtra. More than 50 participants,both students and faculty attended. The studentsprepared the proposal for rainwater harvestingsystems for four major buildings in the campus.The director of Institute, Dr Sontakke, tookspecial interest in organising this training to learnhow to implement rainwater harvesting in thecollege campus.

Gurgaon, December 2007: At the request ofdistrict administration of Gurgaon, a presentationfor the officials was made on all aspects of waterharvesting. This resulted in the administrationtaking interest in the issue and implementingprojects. An award for water harvesting has alsobeen announced.

New Delhi, February 4-8 & March 17-21, 2008:Workshops were organised in two batches for amixed group of government officials, NGOs andcorporate entities. A total of 37 persons attendedthe training.

CSE director addressing the students


Objective: To generate new knowledgeand document people’s efforts in thearea of urban water management

A number of case studies of people’s initiatives inurban water harvesting were documented. Theprocess, which began the previous year, pickedup better this year and a number of new casestudies have been documented. However, workis yet to begin to convert these into web formatsand upload on the web. The documentation,which will also be a part of the new, revisedmanual, has been followed up with field visits toget an idea of the problems at the field level.

The uploading of the case studies collectedthe previous led to visits from severaluniversities. Students of Coimbatore Universityand the MIT School of Government, Pune, visitedthe centre to learn about our urban water work.Professors of Malaysian University who wereundertaking research in this area also visited CSEafter visiting the website. Several requests for

technical consultancy has been received frompeople wanting to undertake water harvestingafter visiting the CSE website.

Objective: To disseminate informationcollected and knowledge generatedwidely

A number of lectures were given at variousplatforms including Shri Ram School and AmitySchool of Urban Management, Noida; FICCI andHUDCO; and, residents of Maharani Bagh andGreater Kailash.

There was wide coverage of CSE’s waterprogrammes in both print and electronic media.Interviews and panel discussions on rainwaterharvesting and related issues were conducted onTV and articles were published in newspapers.Mr Chuba, a scientist by profession said, “This isthe first time that I am coming to a websitewhich provides rich information free of cost. Isalute you!”

Media coverageInterviews on rainwater harvesting and related issueswere carried out by CNN-IBN, Sahara NCR, Azad TV,local news channels in Burdwan and Sarguja andAkashwani Sarguja (radio). The Doordarshanchannel also invited CSE staff to be on their panel ona debate on water for their “Evening Live Show”.

There were articles on CSE’s programmes onrainwater harvesting in news papers like Times ofIndia, Hindustan Times (3 articles), Sahara Times(Hindi), Mint (HT), and ODE Magazine publishedfrom USA.

Catalysing spread of practiceA consultant who had been trained by CSE andwhose name was put up on the CSE websitereported getting several enquiries for waterharvesting. He was also approached to help set up aRain Centre in Thane. CSE staff inaugurated the RainCentre. Other participants of past workshops havebecome full-fledged water warriors and areimplementing projects.

Participants of earlier training programmes havewritten to say that they are implementing waterharvesting structures in various places. Participantsfrom Punjab and Haryana were awarded contracts bythe government for more than 10 water harvestingprojects. Two participants from Kolkata have beenawarded several contracts including one in Africa andanother project in slums. A participant from Mumbai isworking on projects for the Maharashtra government.

Excerpt of a letter from a participant

“The name of the firm is ‘ Comprehensive WaterManagement Solutions Pvt Ltd ‘ . Our activity isconsider all water resources in any given area -such as - rain water, ground water , surface waterand effluent water . Collect all sources , put to usefor different purposes, again reuse -recycle .to makethe area ‘ water sustainable’ . Our aim is to conservewater and maintain the water ecology. I learnt allthis of course, from CSE and now I work in thisarea with full capacity. We all are group of people -civil, geohydrolic expert and quality expert, andmasons, plumbers etc. I will need your help fortraining programme for plumbers . I am also readyto extend my support for any scheme you want doin Pune and Maharashtra.”

Inputs for policymakingMs Sunita Narain participated as a speaker andpanelist in the seminar titled ‘ Water, Power,development- How New Thinking and innovativeTechnologies will solve Global Water Challenges’organised by the Embassy of Sweden and StockholmInternational Water Institute held in Washington.

Ms Sunita Narain attended the Stockholm WaterWeek held in August 2007 and participated at manyevents including the speech at the Royal Colloquiumin Honour of H.M King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Ms Sunita Narain participated as a panel memberat the National Ground Water Congress, organized bythe Ministry of Water resources in New Delhi.

Impact indicators


RIVER POLLUTION CAMPAIGN (S V Suresh Babu, Bharat Lal)

The team released the book, Sewage Canal: Howto Clean the Yamuna and the film, FaecalAttraction, in Delhi, Gurgaon (Haryana) andAgra (Uttar Pradesh). The events were wellcovered by the media and catalysed a debate onneed for revamp of the national river cleaningprogrammes. The film was also screened indifferent schools, colleges and public forums inand around national capital region.

Objective: Advocate for policy changeon alternative solutions for clean rivers

The programme focusses on critical issues suchas wastewater minimisation, cleaner technologiesand importance of environmental flows. Aparticular focus is on clean-up strategies for theYamuna, as this could be a model for other riversto follow.

Release of the publication, Sewage Canal:How to Clean the Yamuna

New Delhi, April 2007: In New Delhi the bookwas released at a public event by Prof SaifuddinSoz, Union water resources minister and SheilaDikshit, Chief Minister of NCT Delhi. At thesame time, a film, Faecal attraction, was alsoreleased. The release functions of the book and

film on Yamuna were well attended and haveinitiated a debate on need for revamp of thenational river cleaning programmes. More than300 people from different walks of lifeparticipated in the meeting. The releasefunctions included the presence of municipalcorporation officials. The book and the eventsreceived very good coverage in the national andinternational media. Dilli Aaj Tak organised anhour-long programme ‘Jan Path’ focusing onYamuna. Local people, legislators andcouncillors, attended this programme organisedon the banks of Yamuna at Majnu ka tilla.

Gurgaon, May 2007: The book was released inGurgaon in collaboration with the DevelopmentResearch Organisation for Nature, Arts andHeritage (DRONAH). More than 150 people werepresent for the meeting. Engineers from HaryanaUrban Development Authority(HUDA), PublicHealth Engineering Department(PHED), CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB), Haryana Instituteof Public Administration (HIPA) and Rail IndiaTechnical & Economic Services(RITES)participated. HIPA invited CSE to be a member ofits high-powered committee on capacity buildingfor Yamuna Action Plan II.

Agra, July 2007: In Agra, the release meetingwas organised with the help of Kendriya HindiSansthan, Agra. Mr Sita Ram Meena,Commissioner Agra was the chief guest. The

Book release function in New Delhi


meeting generated a debate on Yamunapollution and the ways and means to clean it up.This event also received good attention from theprint and electronic media.

The CSE campaign has begun to yieldresults. The Union government has announced arevamp of policy on National River ConservationPlan. CSE has been requested to provide inputsfor revised policy. The Agra MunicipalCorporation has announced plans to movetowards decentralised sewage treatment and hasinitiated a pilot project.

Research on clean-up strategies for otherrivers such as Cooum, Musi and other waterbodies are ongoing. The aim of the research is toshow how current strategies are ineffective andhow we can move forward.

Assessment of the efficacy of CommonEffluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) as astrategy for river clean-up

A policy study to assess and evaluate the impact ofCETPs in controlling industrial pollution is in thefinal stages. This study focuses on regulatory,technical and managerial aspects pertaining tofunctioning of CETPs. Besides Delhi, CSEresearchers traveled to five states-Kolkata, Gujarat,Maharsahtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan forthis purpose. Ahmedabad, Jetpur, Sachin and Vapi(Gujarat); Tarapur, Thane Belapur (Maharashtra),Pali (Rajasthan), Patancheruvu, Jeedimetla(Andhra Pradesh), and, Bantala (West Bengal).The study is nearing completion.

The team works closely with the EnvironmentPollution (Prevention and Control) Authority(EPCA), which has been asked by the SupremeCourt of India to monitor the performance of theCETPs in East Delhi. CSE has also been made amember of the Apex Committee to look at issuesrelating to the clean-up of Yamuna. CSE has alsobeen made a member of the task force on rivers,lakes and aquifers constituted by the unionMinistry of Environment and Forests, whichprovides an opportunity to influence policy-making in the area of management andconservation of water bodies

Objective: Create forums to facilitatesharing of knowledge, strategies andexperiences on river clean-upprogrammes

The pollution of rivers poses a unique dimension of‘hydrosolidarity’ between upstream anddownstream users. At the moment there is noconcept like river basin planning in India for waterquality purposes. When environmentalgovernmental governance is not up to the mark, thecivil society acquires an important role infightingfor appropriate change in governing systems. CSEwill bring together the upstream and downstreamusers and river pollution fighters to understandeach other’s problem and to find solutions.

The team undertook research and laboratorytesting of pollutants in Bandi river on behalf of afarmers’ group, Sri Kisan Paryavaran SangarshSamiti, fighting river pollution. The team

Training workshop in progress


conducted a quality assessment of ground andsurface water in and around the town till 50kilometers downstream. During May 2007, watersamples were collected from the industrial area,the CETPs and tested. A report was prepared andhanded over to the local farmers’ group that wasworking to fight the river pollution.

As a result of the CSE report on the Bandiriver there is direction from the High Court(where a farmers group has filed a case againstriver pollution by textile industries), thatindustries have to install systems to ensure zerodischarge of effluents into the river.

The High Court also gave direction to theState Pollution Control Board to assess wastewatergeneration by industries on a regular basis.

Objective: Create awareness and buildcapacities to work on alternatesolutions for river clean-up

There is very little awareness, both amongdecision-makers as well as the public on theenormous costs of current strategies and thepossibilities for workable alternate strategies.

The documentary film, Faecal attraction:Political economy of defecation was screened indifferent schools, colleges and public forums inand around national capital region to create apublic pressure for policy changes on river clean-up programmes. It received rare reviews in themedia. It was selected for screening at the secondInternational Film Festival, Voices from thewaters in Bangalore.

To strengthen media understanding and thuscreate wider awareness, a two-day media-briefingworkshop on “state of our rivers” was organised.Thereafter, fellowships were given to elevenjournalists from different parts of the country toresearch and report on pollution and itsmanagement in Subarnarekha, Indravati, Gomti,Mahanadi, Bharatapuzha, Jhelum, Sutlej etc.

A training programme Meeting thechallenge: River pollution was conducted fromNovember 13-16, 2007, to a mixed audience ofstudents, NGOs and water professionals. Therewere a total of 33 participants. The four-daytraining programme included class room sessionsand site visits to sewage treatment plant, centralpollution control board (CPCB) pollutionmonitoring lab and a boat ride in the Yamuna.External resource persons included RC Trivedi(CPCB), DK Joshi (petitioner Agra); NikhilNayyar (Advocate Supreme Court); SandeepJoshi (Pune); SG Deolalikar (Water and sanitary

engineer), Naveen Chopra (EM technologies),Rajendra Singh (Tarun Bharat Sangh) and ManojMishra (Yamuna Satyagraha).The workshopcatalysed further interest and the unit receivedenquiries for similar training workshops incolleges from Kerala and Coimbatore.

The team published several reports on theissue including a special report on Sabarmati riverfront development, Kolkata tanneries, a coverstory on CETPs in Hyderabad industrial area andanother on water purifier market and state ofregulation. The training programme catalysedinterest among students and we received requestsfrom colleges for training on the issue.

Media coverageBook release: Almost all national dailies such asTimes of India, The Hindu, Dainik Bhaskar,Rashtriya Sahara, Business Standard, IndianExpress, Amar Ujala, Jansatta, The FortuneMagazine, Gulf news, Malayala Manorama,Mathrubhumi and Indo Asian news service. TVchannels Dilli Aaj Tak, Doordarshan, DD News andother channels also covered the event.

Dilli Aaj Tak organised an hour-longprogramme ‘Jan Path’ focusing on Yamuna. Localpeople, legislators and councillors, attended thisprogramme organised on the banks of Yamuna atMajnu ka tilla. The river pollution team also helpedDilli Aaj Tak television channel to organise a boatride along the Yamuna.

The release of the book in Agra as covered by Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Hindustan dainik, Aaj, Amar Ujala, DLA Media Campus and IANS.Moon TV and Zee News also telecast the news itemon the release.

Many websites including International Waterand Sanitation Centre, People and Planet,Dailyindia.com, Rediff.News, Express India,Telecentre.org and Headlines.India.com, ‘One WorldSouth Asia’, DLA Media - Campus andProjectmonitor.com also carried reports on the book.

The media workshop on the state of the riverswas covered by Reuters, Planet Ark, Newkerala.com,The Tribune, and The Hindustan Times.

Film release: The film, Faecal Attraction: Politicaleconomy of defecation was widely reviewed.Frontline magazine carried a two–page review andConsumer Voice also reviewed it favourably. JennieKermode in Eye for film said, “Faecal Attraction is apolitical film, concerning itself with the plight of thepoor who are continually moved on from their shantytowns on the riverbank.” The film was also selectedfor screening in the 2nd International Film Festivalon water, Voices from the waters, in Bangalore.

Impact indicators


CITY WATER-WASTE MANAGEMENTPROGRAMME(R K Srinivasan and Anita Bhatt)

The major work during the year was the work ontwo publications – one was the revised manual ondecentralised wastewater treatment and the otheron urban water management. While the manualwas completed and published, the book is stillunder preparation and will be completed this year.The team also produced a film on decentralisedwastewater practices named “Clean your act”.

Objective: Build knowledge onalternate sewage managementpractices through research anddocumentation

The team completed the research on 72 Indiancities water and excreta profile. The research hasbeen compiled to form a state of the artpublication on urban water management. Thebook will look at water scenarios in cities acrossIndia to try and find answers for how cities canmanage their water supply and waste-watersustainably. The book is being edited and will bepublished in the current year.

The team also produced revised edition of theprevious manual for wastewater recycling calledDo-It-Yourself. This 96-page manual emphasizesdecentralised wastewater management anddescribes simple techniques that can beimplemented in individual buildings. It hasadditional content on the science of waste-water

treatment, alternate and decentralised treatmenttechnologies being developed across the country.

Objective: Build capacities in civilsociety to move towards alternatesewage management systems

The team carried out several trainingprogrammes with an objective to strengthencapacity building, awareness creation and wide

CSE team members provided inputs to develop theVision document, ‘Bringing sustainability todrinking water systems in rural India’, at the requestof the Department of drinking water supply.

CSE also assisted the department to organisethe national workshop on sustainable sanitation.

CSE was co-opted as a member of acommittee that looked at water supply scenarios invillages Papumpare, East Kameng and WestKameng districts of Arunachal Padesh to helpdevelop future strategies.

The Planning Commission requested CSE togive a presentation on alternative and decentralisedsewage management systems along with other NGOswho work on these issues and have developed suchsystems. The aim was to sensitise policy makers costeffective ways of treating domestic wastewater. Afterthe presentation, the Planning Commission agreed toset up a pilot project to demonstrate the viability andfeasibility of such systems.

Participants at the training workshop held on 16-19 October, 2007

Influencing policy


spread the technical knowledge on decentralisedwastewater systems into larger sections ofsociety. The team also delivered lectures atvarious seminars and workshops.

Training workshops were organised inOctober, 2007 and January 2008 on City waterand waste management. A total of 51 participantsattended the workshops. The workshop includedfield trips to see the Sulabh toilet museum andcase studies of innovative ways of treatingsewage in different parts of the city. A mixedgroup of engineers, students, representatives ofNGOs participated. One opf the participants hasimplemented the sewage treatment project inScindia School, Gwalior.

Objective: Create awareness throughmodel projects on small, decentralisedsewage treatment systems

Team members prepared the design and plans forseveral projects on decentralised sewagetreatment plants at the request of institutions andindividuals. Water samples from the projects werecollected and analysed for quality to assess theperformance of the systems. The following werethe projects for which designs were created:• Plan for the Tughlakabad Institutional Area • Residence of Urvashi Dhamija in Gurgaon• Jamia Hamdard University. Being

implemented. • Indo German Hospital at Ghaziabad. Has

been implemented. • Phase II of the Ajay Garg College, Ghaziabad.

Objective: Create awareness through regular reportage anddocumentation

During the year, several reports on the issuewere published in the media. A film onwastewater recycling was completed and hasbeen disseminated widely. It is also used as atraining tool. Several new case studies onalternate wastewater treatment technologies havebeen documented. Reports were published in themagazine Down To Earth.

Participants at the Sulabh International Museum of toilets

CSE films ‘Clean your act - A guide to treat

domestic sewage” and ‘The raincatchers - a

practical guide to solve your water problems’ werenominated for CMS VATAVARAN 2007 – 4th Competitive Environment and Wildlife FilmFestival.

CSE staff made presentations at variousforums, including at meetings organised by theDepartment of drinking water supply. Teammembers also spoke at meetings organised byNGOs.

The second edition of the “Do it yourself: Awastewater recycling manual for urban areas” hasbecome very popular amongst experts,practitioners and policy makers. About 1,300 copieswere sold since the release of the second edition inJanuary 2007.

Impact indicators


The team focused on assessing the Impact of thenewly launched programme under the National

Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA). Eventhough the programme is mainly one of creatingemployment for the rural poor to ensure that theyget minimum employment, CSE had strongly andsuccessfully advocated to ensure that theprogramme be used to create durable naturalassets. Therefore, CSE prepared a policy paper tolook at how this programme can be made into aneffective tool for the creation for durable naturalassets and contribute to improving rural livelihoods.CSE also conducted ground-level surveys in twodistricts where it had been implemented to assessthe impact from the perspective of natural assetcreation.

Team members also traveled widely to havea first-hand look at rural India and how thegovernment programmes are impacting on theirlives. These reports, published in Down To Earthwere widely read and greatly appreciated.

Objective: Influence policy on using the NREGA to improve rural assets and livelihoods through research andfield studies

Study on NREGA: To advocate alternativeapproaches to livelihood security through goodnatural resource management for differentecosystems, the team undertook extensiveresearch on the issue of employment forimproving rural livelihoods. The team identified10 villages which could serve as case studies forresearch on the impacts of community efforts inmanaging local natural resource base.

By the end of the year, the team came outwith a policy paper on the National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The paperwas released on March 31 2008 on the eve of theAct becoming pan-India. The paper deals withdevelopment Impact of the act and its potentialfor the local economy. It covered 12 districts in 9states. It was preceded by an extensive andintensive backgrounder on state ofunemployment in India which was put on thewebsite.

The findings of the base paper on NREGAhave been discussed and debated at various

forums, and in the Ministry of Rural DevelopmentSeminar on NREGA. The paper has created a newunderstanding of rational and participatorynatural resource management vis-à-vis ruraldevelopment programmes that focus onecological regeneration. It gives a whole newmeaning to the development programmes inseeing then as ecological programmes ratherthan simple employment generationprogrammes. It is unique in that it looks atproductive asset creation under NREGA unlikemost of the studies available on the act.

There has been a very good response to theNREGA paper and the background paper onemployment which have been uploaded on thewebsite. Positive feedback has also beenreceived from those who have read the papers.

Survey of NREGA districts: As part of itsassessment of NREGA, the team has developed asurvey to monitor rural developmentprogrammes. The methodology has been testedin 3 districts of Orissa and MP in partnership withlocal universities. The survey report has beensent to the state governments for considerationand debate and awaits comments from theministry as well as the state government.

The detailed survey methodology has beenused to train student representatives from 7states. The training imparted on the use of theseinstruments has been helpful for the concernedorganizations to further hone their skills inmonitoring development programmes.

The team was asked by the Ministry of RuralDevelopment to prepare a template forevaluation of NREGA during a meeting to discussthe evaluation process for the NREGAprogramme. Team members also participated inthe deliberations for the 11th plan and providedinputs on analysis of poverty estimates.

Objective: Create awareness andinfluence policy on community-basednatural resource management byhighlighting success stories

The team published several reports on variousaspects of natural resource management. Thecover story on Hiware Bazar was instrumental for

Natural resource management andlivelihood programme (Richard Mahapatra, Supriya Singh, Neha Sakhuja & Sandeep Das)


the village to get an award instituted by theMinistry Of Water Resources for exemplaryefforts in recharging groundwater. The story hasbeen very well received and very positivefeedback has been received. As an outcome ofthe report on rainfed farming, the team wasinvited to a national workshop on ‘Newparadigm for rainfed farming’ organised byIndian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR)and Hyderbad based Watershed Support Servicesand Activities Network (WASSAN) in New Delhito talk on rainfed farming.

There were major reports on rainfed farming,natural resource management initiative stories,the controversy surrounding the use of waters ofthe Hirakud dam.

The team conducted extensive research onlocal governance, rural development andPanchayati Raj institutions and the report‘Panchayati Raj: half a cheer for democracy’ waspublished in Down To Earth. A series of reportswere published on the eve of the Union budgeton budgeting for the development sector.Reports were also published on the state ofNREGA implementation.

Objective: Create awareness aboutnatural resource management issuesby documenting and disseminatinginformation

Ecology for Economy series: A series calledEcology for Economy has been prepared that

comprises case studies of Sukhomajri, Bunga,Hivre Bazar, Mendha and Raj Samadhiyalavillages. These case studies provide detailedanalysis of the framework that is necessary forcommunity-based natural resource management.This has been uploaded on the website.

Dossier on backward districts: A dossier of200 backward districts under NREGA completewith the natural resource base and otherdevelopment indicators has been uploaded on the website. The website also has a centralsite on NREGA that has information on allaspects of NREGA available in one place withimportant links to related resources. Thewebsite also has an interactive map that tracks NREGA implementation in 200 backward districts.

E-POV newsletter: The monthly e-newsletter onenvironment-poverty linkages is now two yearsold and 1200 strong in subscription. This is anetwork platform for us on environment andpoverty. We have come out with thematic issueson climate change, rainfed areas, budget, etc.along with extensive coverage of issues in NRMand related fields.

Briefing workshops: We have conducted twotraining workshops. The workshops fill animportant gap in understanding poverty and itslink to environment by looking at practical waysof managing natural resources. Representatives

Participants of the training workshop held on 9-13 April, 2007


from 26 organisations, mostly implementingNGOs and policy advocacy groups, participated.

April 9-13, 2007: The workshop had guestlectures from the Planning Commission, SupremeCourt’s Right to Food secretariat, Indian Institute ofPublic Administration and other developmentexperts. Participants made a trip to Sukhomajri andBunga villages in Haryana for gaining first handexperience on local natural resource management.

November 19-23, 2007: The team organised asecond training programme from November 19 -

23, 2007 that included a two-day trip to Laporiyavillage in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district. The field tripto Laporiya, a drought prone village, which hasbeen successfully able to revive its ecosystemand improve its local dairy economy by adoptingan innovative rainwater harvesting systempopularly known as chaukas (dykes) helped allto gain perspectives on ecological poverty and itsrelevance to local development. The workshopincluded debates and discussions on the linkagesbetween environment and poverty in Indiancontext.

As a direct result of the workshop that dealtwith the issue of ecological poverty, manyparticipants have adopted this concept in theirrural development projects. A training participant,from Sahgal Foundation organised a farmers’meet in Punjab to share the biomass economypart of the training. A farmer from Rajasthan, whoparticipated in this meeting organised anotherfarmers’ meeting in Sriganganagar for revivingagriculture in the state.

The Planning Commission director whoattended the meeting did promise to study thelinkages between economic growth and povertyin more certain terms. The unit is also initiating aspecific workshop on poverty measurement andhow to quantify ecological poverty.

Team members asked to provide policy inputsThe report on Panchayati Raj Institutions evokedgood response from many quarters. Based on thestory the unit members made many presentations inregional as well as national conferences on localgovernance. The Aga Khan Foundation invited theteam to make a presentation on the ‘Role ofPanchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in universalisationof school education’ at a seminar in Jaipur. Manyregional newspapers picked up the report andpublished it. • Coalition of the Indian Millennium campaign

‘Keep the Promise’ asked the unit to make apresentation on environment and the linkages topoverty in Orissa. ‘The India DevelopmentFoundation’, Gurgaon requested the unit tomake a presentation based on the report ‘Hornsof a Dilemma’. They also requested the team tomake a presentation on NREGA.

• The team anchored a discussion on ecologicalaspects of poverty in the UNDP supportedsolution exchange programme.

• The team was invited to Madurai Symposiumorganised by Dhan foundation and made apresentation on the issue of economic growthand its impact on poverty eradication.

• Team members provided inputs on NREGA andreviving natural assets at a workshop organisedby the Ministry of Rural Development

• Ms Sunita Narain addressed a consultation on the theme ‘ Where Hunger Rules, peacecannot Prevail - A Roadmap for a hunger Free,Nutrition Secure India’, organised by TheNational Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.

• Ms Sunita Narain was delivered a lecture at theTufts University, Massachusetts in theirsymposium on global poverty and inequality.

Web and media impact• Web groups Jivika and Forest rights referred

CSE’S NREGA briefing paper and backwarddistrict ranking available on unit’s website.

• The Ministry of Water Resources requested theteam to prepare a brochure containing theprofile of awardees for the newly constitutednational water award and BhoomijalSamvardhan Puraskar.

• Online web group run by students of Symbiosis institute of management requested the permission from the team to host E-POVarticles.

Impact indicators

Participants of the training workshop during their visit inSukhomajri


The major achievement during the year wasthe completion and release of the 6th State of

India’s Environment Report on mining. CSEreleased the reports in the states of Orissa, Goa,Jharkhand and West Bengal at events chaired bythe respective Governors. In all venues the eventreceived an overwhelming response from thepublic and served to bring together groupsfighting corporate mining. The events were alsowell covered by the local and national media.

The team undertook advocacy on the issueof mining arguing for sustainable mining thatensured benefits to accrue to the poor. The AnilAgarwal Dialogue on Mining, People andEnvironment, organised in April 2007, broughttogether civil society groups, governmentofficials and the media. Team members madepresentations at key forums on mining and areport published in Down To Earth resulted inthe Group of Ministers on National Mineral Policyasking CSE to make a presentation on the issue.

The team continued with its popular trainingprogramme on EIA. The Department ofEnvironment (DOE) of Bangladesh requested theteam to conduct traing for government officials.The week-long programme so impressed theofficials that they requested CSE to help them setup a permanent training centre and develop aregular training programme for their regulators.

The community support programme also met with positive response and CSE’s reports were used by NGOs to intervene in thepublic hearing process successfully in at leasttwo cases.

Objective:To undertake advocacy forsustainable mining

Rich Lands, Poor People – Is SustainableMining Possible?: The sixth State of India’sEnvironment Report on mining was published inNovember 2007 and released in Orissa, Goa,Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh bythe Governors of the respective states. This bookis a result of the year-long research on status ofmining sector in the country and the issuesrelated to it. The mining sector is an importantconstituent of the Indian economy. However, ithas huge environmental and social costs. This iswhy there are protests in many states againstmining projects.

The book is an attempt to present the current scenario of mining sector in the countryand recommend a path for sustainable mining. It analyses the importance of the sector tothe growth of the country keeping in perspectivethe environmental and social costs. The book alsodocuments the status of mining sector and the

Mining book release in Bubhaneshwar

Sustainable industrialisation(Chandra Bhushan, Monali Zeya, Nivit K Yadav, Sujit K Singh, Gayatri Santhanam)


issues arising out of it — the public protests andthe environmental challenges — in the majormineral producing states of the country.

Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Mining, Peopleand Environment: This event, held in April2007, brought together activists, officials andscientists. More than 75 persons attended themeet from the states of Karnataka, Goa,Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand andChhattisgarh. The meeting included a mediabriefing which was attended by about 30 mediarepresentatives from across the country.Representatives from the union ministry ofmines, ministry of tribal affairs and otherrelated departments were present to dialoguewith the activists and NGOs. The dialoguecovered issues of mining regulations, regulatorycapacity, forest clearances and ‘no-go’ areas,mine closure and displacement, resourcesharing and other issues.

A report on mining published in Down ToEarth was sent to to the Group of Ministers(GoM) on National Mineral Policy. CSE wasinvited to make a presentation on the subject,which was well appreciated. Montek SinghAhluwalia, Chairperson, Planning Commissionalso communicated his agreement with the issueshighlighted in by CSE.

Release of the book in other cities: The bookis being released around events planned to bring

all sections of society together and createawareness about the issues.

Bhubaneshwar, December 21, 2007: The firstnational release of the report took place in themineral-rich state of Orissa by the Governor ofOrissa, M C Bhandare.

Kolkata, January 18, 2008: In Kolkata the bookwas released to coincide with the 2nd AsiaMining Congress at the city. The report wasreleased by the Governor of West Bengal ShriGopal Krishna Gandhi. Among the panel,chairman of Coal India, Shri Partha Bhattacharyawas also present. The function was well veryreceived by the industry, local NGOs, regulatorsand general public.

Panjim, January 28, 2008: The Governor ofGoa, Shri S C Jamir released the report. Thisevent was very successful in gathering affectedcommunities, regulators and industries to acommon forum. Ms Sunita Narain also met andgave presentation to the Chief Minister and theChief Secretary of Goa.

Ranchi, March 28, 2008: In the mining state ofJharkand, the Governor, Shri Syed Sibtey Razi released the book. On the panel were Shri R P Ritolia, Chairman of Central CoalfieldsLimited, Shri Ram Dayal Munda, Former Vice Chancellor of Ranchi University and

Media briefing on mining


renowned activist and Shri H B N Singh, Editor ofPrabhat Khabar.

Objective: To engage with the industrialsector to improve its environmentalperformance

Sectoral rating: The base paper for the newcross-sectoral rating of industries on energy andwater management has been prepared. The aimis to undertake a cross-sectoral rating of about200 companies on their energy and waterefficiency performance. The team has compiledinformation on energy, water and pollution andlooks at sectors such as distillery, fertiliser, steel,aluminium, tanneries, thermal power plant, pulpand paper, automobile, chlor-alkali, cement andhospitality sector. This work is ongoing and willbe completed this year.

Objective: To build a network of NGOs,local communities and the panchayats,who can be watchdogs to the process ofenvironmental clearance in the country

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is animportant tool to inform decision-makers,regulators and stakeholders about the possibleenvironmental, social and economic costs of aproposed project. To be effective, it requires theactive involvement of all stakeholders. However,since EIA reports are technical in nature,

community-based organisations and small NGOs find it difficult to review and interpret them.

The team helped grass root organisationsand NGOs with evaluations of EIA reports onprojects. The team provided EIA assessments for8 projects during the year. The team alsoundertook an inspection of a distillery in Bihar atthe request of NGOs.

Objective: To strengthen the regulatory system in the country

The Industry and Environment Unit prepared adraft report on the state of environmentregulations and regulatory institution in thecountry. The report was prepared with the helpof primary data collected from 10 state pollutioncontrol boards and online survey in which morethan 100 people participated. Preparation of thefinal report is progressing.

Objective: To create capacities among all stakeholders of industry-environment area

Recognising the need for building capacities ofregulators and others to use and implement theEnvironment Impact Assessment (EIA)mechanism, CSE developed a hands-on-five-daytraining programme, ‘Understanding EIA: Fromscreening to decision making’ aimed at giving

• The technical evaluation of EnvironmentalImpact Assessment report (EIA) of Monet Ispatwas used by local activists in the public hearingprocess. Mr Ramesh Sharma, from Ekta Parishad,a local NGO asked questions in the hearing onthe lacunae identified by CSE in the EIA report towhich company and the consultant could notrespond satisfactorily. Therefore, the districtcollector, chairing the public hearing, cancelledthe hearing process and asked the company torespond to the queries raised. Ekta Parsihad isalso planning to use the report for filing caseagainst Monet in the Supreme Court.

• CSE’s technical evaluation of EIA and RiskAssessment report for coal bed methane explorationproject of Mand Raigarh CBM Block, was used bythe local NGO to raise pertinent questions in thepublic hearing meeting. The meeting was latercancelled due to the protests from the public. Thestory is also being covered in Down To Earth.

• Mr Rajesh Jakhar, an advocate in Hissar,approached for advice on the clearance that hadbeen granted to Hissar Thermal Power Plant. Hewants to file a legal case against the plant.

• Civil society from Pudducherry approached us forthe technical evaluation of the port. A detailedanalysis was conducted which was published as aCover story in Down To Earth (May 15, 2007) onPort in Puducherry ‘Harbouring doubts’. Thestory was very much appreciated by the readersand number of readers wrote back endorsing thefindings of the story. The story has created hugehue and cry in Puducherry and two parts of theproject has been cancelled.

• The team was also approached by local NGO inSitamarhi, Bihar requested to assess the pollutionfrom a distillery plant in their area. A detailedanalysis was done which included a visit to thearea to assess the impact. This was againpublished as a special report in Down To Earth.

EIA evaluations and after


practical exposure to participants onenvironmental impact assessment. During the period, the Industry and EnvironmentUnit organised three training programmes on’Understanding EIA: From screening to decisionmaking’ in the months of August (27-31st),September (24-28th) 2007 and February (25-29),2008. The 5 days training programme includedlectures, classroom exercises and in-depthanalysis of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)reports. More than 100 participants attended thetraining programmes from civil society, industry,consultants and academics.

The training provided a forum for detaileddebate and discussion on a range of issuesregarding EIA beginning from history andbackground of EIA, environmental clearance

process in India, importance ofscoping, fundamentals of datacollection, impact assessment,mitigation and environmentmanagement plan, significance ofbiodiversity and developmentprojects and its assessmentmethodology, introduction toindustrial air pollution monitoringand modelling etc. Theparticipants were also givenclassroom exercises on how to fileand compile applications based ontheir projects.

Several officials from statepollution control boards of stateslike Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh,Orissa and Maharashtra attended

the programmes. NGOs from across the countryalso underwent training on how to interpret EIAreports and how to intervene in the publichearing process, the only route for communityintervention in the industrialisation process.

Training for Bangladesh officials: The teamwas approached by the BangladeshEnvironmental Institutional Strengthening Project(BEISP) to undertake a special EIA trainingprogramme for project appraisal committee ofDepartment of Environment, Government ofBangladesh. At the end of the trainingprogramme, the officials requested CSE to help them to set up a training centre forregulators and also to help them develop trainingprogrammes.

Sunita Narain addressing the training participants on EIA

Media coverageMining book release in Orissa: The Samaja, OrissaSamaya, The Times of India, Odisha Bhaskar, IndianExpress, Pragtiwadi, Business Standard. Also coveredin The Hindu and The Hindustan Times, Delhi edition.

Mining book release in Goa: The event wascovered by all the local newspapers such as ‘TheNavhind Times, Tarun Bharat, Herald, GomantakTimes, Gomantak, Tarun Bharat, The Herald andnews channels such as Goa Times.

Mining book release in Jharkhand: Almost all thelocal newspapers such as The Pioneer, TheHindustan Times (Ranchi Edition), Prabhat Khabar,Ranchi Express, The Telegraph, Dainik Jagran andHindustan reported on the event.

Team members asked to provide policy inputs• Presentation on ‘Rich Lands, Poor People’ in

the international Asia Mining Congress inKolkata; in a conference organised by Heinrich Boll Foundation, New Delhi on March25, 2008; at National seminar on EnvironmentalCost and opportunities by Loyala College,Chennai.

• Presentation on ‘Environmental and socialimpacts of mining sector’ at a Media BriefingWorkshop organised by PANOS on July 20,2007; in an international conference “Managingthe social and environmental consequences ofcoal mining in India’ organized by IndianSchool of Mines, Dhanbad and AustralianNational University in Delhi on 18-21November, 2007.

Impact indicators


CSE’s interventions and activities in the area ofclimate change have been in several forms –

from attending meetings to present CSE’sperspectives on climate change to producingreports to providing policy inputs at keycommittees that will influence national andinternational policies to address climate change.

Policy inputs

Nationally, the Prime Minister has set up a councilunder his Chairmanship to assess and plan foractions to deal with climate change. CSE directorhas been made a member of the Council and thisaffords CSE the opportunity to intervene in thepolicy making process on the issue. CSE directorhas attended some of the meetings and theCommittee is expected to produce an action planfor the country to address the issue.

Internationally, the Swedish Government hasset up the International Commission on ClimateChange and Development to address the adverseeffects of climate change on development andCSE director has been made a member of thisCommission and has contributed with inputs atthe first meeting held in Stockholm.

CSE director was also invited by the UNGeneral Assembly to participate in a paneldiscussion on ‘Climate change as a globalchallenge’. Her presentation at this forum wasreported and disseminated widely. Anotherinfluential forum was the Nobel LaureateSymposium held in Potsdam, Germany whereCSE’s presentation was very well received – “themost emotional, and emotionally stirring, talk ofthe meeting, by Sunita Narain …shocked theaudience with an unadorned account of howclimate change will affect poorer countries like hers,and an equally unadorned accusation of richsocieties failure to act” – a comment in nature.com.

The World Bank, Washington, invited CSEdirector to speak at Sustainable DevelopmentNetwork Week on the topic, ‘Climate changeand development: External views and internalvision’. She was also the keynote speaker at themeeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers inGeorgetown, Guyana, on climate change.

In June CSE participated in the G8Alternative Summit in Rostok, which wasorganised as a form of protest to the policies andpolitics of the G8 governments. Sunita Narainwas a panelist in the workshop titled, ‘Climatejustice: How can we achieve it?’ While in

Germany, she also spoke at two other separateevents in an attempt to create wider awareness ofthe need for equity and for political will to takeactions to halt global warming.

Creating awareness through mediaparticipation

CSE director was invited to be on the panel for adiscussion on Saving Planet Earth, a part of theFuture Summit held in Singapore organised byCNN International Television Show. The panelincluded Olafur Grimsson, President, Republic ofIceland and Bjorn Lomborg, Author of TheSkeptical Environmentalist. This show receivedgood response from a number of viewers.

CSE director was also interviewed on climatechange by the BBC World Service Radio onclimate change and its global impact prior to therelease of the final IPCC report and by theGerman magazine Der Uberblack. Anotherpremier German daily, ‘Suddeutsche zeitung,published CSE’s article on climate change. Indianpublications such as Malayala ManoramaYearbook and Tehelka have also publishedreports on climate change from CSE. Gulf newscarried Sunita Narain’s views, as a member of thePrime Minister’s council on India’s plans to do tomitigate and adapt to climate change.

Creating awareness through reports

The editorial Climate science and the Indianscientist, was circulated to a number of Indianscientists to initiate discussion among thescientific community and we received very goodresponses from a number of scientists. Theeditorial, No more kindergarten approach toclimate Change, received huge responses frominternational experts. They include CasparHenderson, Oxford, Daniel M. Kurtzman, ClimateChange Impact Research Project, Inc, Dr ShivSomeshwar, International Research Institute (IRI)

Climate change campaign


for Climate and Society, Columbia University,Jacques Leonardi, IPCC reviewer on transportand climate mitigation, Jürgen Maier, Director,German NGO Forum Environment &development, Anders Wijkman, Member OfEuropean Parliament, Dr. Hassan Virji, DeputyDirector International START Secretariat.

The special issue on climate change prior tothe Bali climate meet was circulated widely topolicy and decision makers, media and scientistsand we received positive responses from most ofthose who had been sent a copy of the issue.

CSE continued with its two-pronged strategyof doing lab research to generate empirical

data on issues of toxins and food safety and alsodoing policy research and advocacy to bringabout changes in the regulatory and enforcementframework.

Objective: To bring about changes inthe regulatory and enforcementframework

The team followed up on its studies on pesticidecontamination in soft drinks. CSE continuouslymonitored the union health ministry’s work to fixa final product standard for soft drinks. InFebruary 2008 the ministry finally validated amethodology for testing soft drinks. The finalproduct standard is now in the process of beingpublished as a gazette notification. This is theoutcome of CSE’s five-year long research andefforts to highlight the issue of pesticidecontamination and to regulate such products.

The CSE laboratory successfully finished twostudies. The lab studies have been backed upwith research on regulatory aspects, the groundrealities and policies in countries the world-over.The studies will be publicly released in thecoming months. Water samples were collectedfrom the Patancheru area in Andhra Pradesh andtested for heavy metals. The analysis was done tosupport the CSE report on the high levels ofantibiotic residues in the waters of Musi river.

Objective: To network with civil societygroups who are fighting theunregulated use of chemicals

CSE has been supporting the efforts of Kheti

Virasat Mission (KVM), an NGO-based inBhatinda district in Punjab, that has beenworking among the farmers in Punjab to spreadawareness about the indiscriminate use ofpesticides. The NGO has been educating farmersagainst use of chemicals and shifting to non-pesticidal and organic farming. CSE hadcommissioned KVM to do a “Detailed studies onlocal agriculture practices at Jajjal village, districtBhatinda, Punjab”. The study is currentlyongoing.

CSE provided a forum for those who arefighting toxification in agriculture. It organised ameeting to discuss issues of interest and also todiscuss ways to counter the strategy of industry to use litigation to harass scientists andNGOs who are fighting industry. The pesticide industry has filed what are known asSLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against PublicParticipation) cases against scientist and activists spreading awareness or doing researchabout harmful effects of pesticides. This meetingwas to discuss these issues and find a way forward.

Web and media responses • The film The Whistle Blower, based on CSE’s

study on pesticide contamination in bottledwater and soft drinks and produced by PublicService Broadcasting Trust won the Nationalaward, the Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 10,000/-.

• It also received the VATAVARAN awards forfilms on environment sponsored by the Unionministry of environment.

Impact indicators

Anti-toxin campaign(Chandra Bhushan, Kushal P S Yadav, Sapna Johnson, Nirmali Saikia, Avinash K Balyan)


The debate of environment and developmentis raging all over the country. Tribals and

farmers are being increasingly forced out of theirlands, with little opportunities of livelihoodelsewhere. These events required in-depthreportage, not just about capturing these conflictsand events, but also a nuanced understandingand reportage of the socio-cultural patterns andfuture implications for the nation and its people.

CSE’s environmental reportage yielded gooddividends during the year. Several stories broughtin corrective actions from officials, responsesfrom NGOs and scientists.

CSE reporters travelled to farms, factories,villages and urban areas across the country tocapture and report the happenings. Reportagecaptured some of the most intense events anddebates: the launch of the Nano, the SEZs and

the resulting intenseconflicts, several issueson rural issues rangingfrom panchayati raj torainfed farming toNREGA, the debateabout how the mineralresources of thecountry should beused, the regulation ofhazardous wastes andhow to conservewildlife in India. Thecoverage on mining

was picked by numerous publications.Environmental health issues such as the shortageof vaccines in the country were also covered.

The reportage on the upcoming Puducherryport in south Indiaand the problems inthe project received atremendous response.A u t h o r i t i e simmediately tookcognizance of theproblems highlightedin the report and tookcorrective action. Asan aftermath, a newenvironmental impactassessment was,

ordered by the Pondicherry government. Seniorgovernment official informed CSE that two of thecomponents of the port namely Iron ore and thecoal terminal were scrapped as these wouldincrease pollution in the city.

• Reportage on how extensive use syntheticvanilla is creating problems for natural vanillagrowers in India led to substantive policyinitiatives. Government-controlled co-operative institutions such as Mother Dairyand the National Dairy Development Boardwere instructed to buy natural vanillin fromfarmers and use it inproducts like ice creamsby the union agricultureand union commerceministries. The director(Marketing) SpicesBoard, Cochin, wrote toCSE saying that they areworking to solve theproblem of the vanillafarmers.

• A presentation by a CSEstaffer on CDM at a seminar in Luxembourgresulted in parliamentarians taking up theissue in the parliament. A question wasintroduced asking how the government wantsto make sure that the Luxemburg CDM-projects will bring the expected results.

• The special issue on climate change prior tothe Bali meeting was very well receivedamongst politicians, scientists, civil society andindustry. Reactions poured in from all over thecountry and also from international readerscommenting on the in-depth and holisticcoverage of the issues. Indian Prime minister’soffice wrote to CSE saying that the “PM hastaken note of your suggestion for our nationalposition on climate change”. Former PM I KGujral wrote to CSE appreciating its effort torouse public consciousness on the issue.

• The Down to Earth story on Municipal SolidWaste Management in India was widelyreferred in R’07 World Congress –Recovery ofMaterials and Energy Resources Efficiency atDavos, Switzerland during first week ofSeptember 2007.

Science and environment reportage(Pradip Saha, Sopan Joshi, Kushal Pal Singh Yadav, Nidhi Jamwal, Vibha Varshney, Maureen N Mitra, Kirtiman Awasthi, Arnab P Dutta,Ravleen Kaur, Sumana Narayanan, Savvy Soumya Mishra, Archita Bhatta, Mario D Souza, D M Nair, Paromita Ukil, Kaushik Dasgupta, SnighdaDas, Indrajit Bose, Archana Yadav, Surya Sen, Shyamal Banerjee, Agnimirh Basu, Vineeta Venugopal, Neha Saluja, Shri Krishen, Kirpal Singh,Surender Singh, Gundar Das)

Impact: Policy change


• The reportage on small cars, congestion and pollution was widely covered in various publications all over the world. Afterthe CSE report the issue was picked up several media organisations and led to a huge public debate. Several leadingpublications including International HeraldTribune, The New York Times, OneWorld South Asia, Central chronicle, sify.comand a large number of televisions channelspicked up CSE’s reportage and spoke to the CSE reporters. Leading automanufacturers responded to the CSEreportage on the issues.

• The Guardian, UK published an article titled‘Truth about Kyoto: huge profits, little carbonsaved’ based on the DTE story

• A number of editorials were re-printed inseveral publications both in India as well asabroad.

• The article, ‘ Surviving 15 years of bad News –Desperately seeking good news’ got goodcomments from Sanat Mehta, the formerfinance minister of Gujarat saying that he likedthe article and that he, like the author of thearticle is also desperately seeking good news.

• A Down To Earth reader wrote to us, “I enjoyedreading your editorial. The insights are deepand new, and very few persons raise theseissues in such a clear and cogent manner. Ithink you should seriously consider taking outin a book form your selected editorials. Theywould be a great help to many NGOs anddevelopment organisations”.

• Readng the story on the benefits of smalltractors for Indian farmers, Shubsankar Tomarwrote to DTE saying that his small tractormanufacturing industry is in dire straits. Hereceived many offers from venture capitalistsvolunteering to help him restart his company.

• The Guardian, UK published an article titled‘Truth about Kyoto: huge profits, little carbonsaved’ based on the DTE story ‘ Newest BiggestDeal’ on the Clean Development Mechanism.

• Ashok Datar reprinted the story Spoilt Lot; Hornsof Dilemma was reprinted in Central Chronicleand was also carried by following e-groups -forest rights, jivika, andamannicobar,development gateway, IAS general studies webgroup and Africa development web group andwww.rainfedfarming.org

• Agriculture Today, India’s premier agriculturemagazine reprinted the story of Hiware Bazar -54 Millionaires in a village.

• TsuInfo Alert, the newsletter of the National (US)Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program reprintedCoastal Shield; ICFAI University Books reprintedNo Concrete Plans.

• Soch Pani Ki’, a newsletter by HEDCONrequested permission to translate an article bySunita Narain, published in Dainik Bhaskar ongroundwater depletion.

• The Island newspaper, Sri Lanka requestedpermission to reprint the editorials on thescience page of their paper.

• Dr N Balasubramani, MANAGE asked forpermission to use the editorial ‘When markets do work’ in his training programme as a case study.

• Steve Ewings asked for permission to useeditorial ‘No more Kindergarten approach toClimate change’ as a reading in his online class.

• NataliePace .com reprinted the editorial‘Biofuel: Good idea, Bad practice’ in the Julyissue of their monthly newsletter Ezine.

• Insight Magazine reprinted the editorial ‘ UrbanGrowth Model needs Reality Check’ in their Julyissue.

• Monique Pool, of Suriname EnvironmentalAdvisory Services, Suriname, South America hasrequested permission to translate and reprint theeditorials in the local newspaper.

• LEAD International has requested permission toreprint the editorial ‘Å“Biofuel: good idea, badpractice’ as background reading within atraining workbook for an international eventexploring Leadership and Climate Change:

• ‘Writing a Nation – An anthology of IndianJournalism’ – Edited by Nirmala Lakshmanincludes the editorial by Sunita Narain ‘Slappedinto Submission’.

• The editorial ‘Bottled water Costs us the earth’,was reprinted in the website of ‘ ParyavaranSandesh’.

• GroundWork an environmental justice NGO inSouth Africa and The European Council for anEnergy Efficient Economy (eceee) requestedpermission to reprint the editorial ‘Bali - themother of all no-deals’.

• The Global Subsidies Initiative, Switzerlandrequested permission to reprint the editorial ‘The Nano- flyover Syndrome’ in the forthcomingedition of their monthly newsletter ‘SubsidyWatch’.

Impact: Request for reprint of CSE reports

Replication in Media Impact: Letter


The special issue on climate change prior tothe Bali meeting was very well received amongstpoliticians, scientists, civil society and industry.Reactions poured in from all over the country andalso from international readers commenting onthe in-depth and holistic coverage of the issues.Indian Prime minister’s office wrote to CSE sayingthat the “PM has taken note of your suggestion forour national position on climate change”.

The reportage on small cars, congestion andpollution was widely covered in variouspublications all over the world. After the CSEreport the issue was picked up several mediaorganisations and led to a huge public debate.CSE’s reportage on the clean developmentmechanism projects in India formed the basis oflaunch of campaign in Luxembourg againstLuxembourg government buying carbon creditsfrom such projects. CSE’s reportage was quotedin questions raised in the Luxembourgparliament on this issue. The vanilla report led tosubstantive policy initiatives.

ENVIRONMENT AND DISSEMINATION

The purpose of EIDU is to disseminateinformation about CSE products and generaterevenue through sale of CSE publications, DownTo Earth magazine and advertising space in

Down To Earth. The main strategy to achievethese objectives is direct mailing. In addition, wealso use exhibitions, booksellers, newsstands,schools and CSE meetings to sell disseminate CSEproducts. Down To Earth is available atnewsstands in over 50 cities in India.

The year ended with an income of Rs. 1.77crore from the sales of CSE products, Down ToEarth and training services. The new book onmining sold nearly 700 copies within threemonths. The book was sold as a package dealwith all the SOEs and this helped to also push thesales of other SOEs. The new manual onwastewater recycling has also been sold outwithin a few months and will go into reprint.

The sale of Green Files was Rs. 12.75 lakh,and the income from sale of publications was Rs.17.89 lakh. Income from audio-visual productswas Rs. 25.82 lakh.

The income from advertisements in Down ToEarth was Rs. 27 lakh and income from sales ofthe magazine was Rs. 42 lakh. More than 2500new subscribers were added and the renewalrate was about 70%. Nearly 50% of thesubscribers are individuals followed by schools,colleges, research institutions and NGOs, whichtogether make up another 40%. This year therehas been a special effort to get bulk subscriptionsand 2 bulk orders from two different forms were obtained.


This has been a mixed year for the AnilAgarwal Green Centre (AAGC). Broadly, the

objectives and tasks for 2007-08 were to expandthe existing bouquet of short-term and long-termtraining programmes and to conduct a feasibilitystudy on the Centre gaining a University status.

Although we conducted 18 trainingprogrammes this year, in which more than 550participants were trained by AAGC, there wereno new training programmes launched. Similarly,a flagship programme planned for the year, a 2-month course for Indian students and youngprofessionals, was postponed as it wasannounced with very little response time forparticipants to register.

However, the new initiative for the year wasin carefully selecting and targeting two newerconstituencies — students and regulators. Therainwater harvesting course specifically targetedstudents, and met with enthusiastic responsefrom colleges and universities across India. Theregulator community was another newconstituency targeted and they were invited toattend the workshops on conductingEnvironmental Impact Assessments.

Feedback from the participants shows thatthe programmes fulfil an acutely felt need amongthe target group. Most participants attending thedocumentation workshops, for instance, were inthe midst of creating or reorganising theirinformation management systems in theirorganisations, and this programme allowed themto put to practice what they learned at AAGC.Similarly, feedback from many participants

attending the rainwater harvesting course saidthe workshop helped them sharpen their abilitiesto popularise and implement RWH systems.

AAGC continued the month-long orientationprogramme for The Centre for Development andthe Environment (SUM), University of Oslo,Norway. The course, conducted for the fourthtime, has consistently received good feedbackfrom the students. As part of the courseassignment, students produced, entirely on theirown, a magazine, ReAct together with a websiteand a campaign which they then exhibited at theUniversity of Oslo upon their return to Norway.

Training programmes conducted

A total 18 short-term training programmes wereconducted this year, in which more than 580participants were trained. Lectures were alsogiven under the aegis of AAGC to students and

Name of workshop Number of Number of Profile of Revenueworkshops participants participants earned

Rainwater harvesting 6 264 Consultants, NGOs, government, 3.71industry, plumbers, students

River pollution 1 30 Students, NGOs, consultants 0.57

Wastewater management 2 49 Students, NGOs, consultants 1.06

EIA (including one at 4 122 Industry, NGO, consultants, 8.33Bangladesh)regulators, lecturers

TGV 2 34 NGOs 1.80

Information 2 53 Largely NGOs, but also govt 2.91management and industry

Total 17 552 18.38

Foreign students 1 30 Students 31.00

Students from Oslo at a training session

Anil Agarwal Green College (Gita Kavarana, Aditya Batra and Pratap Pandey)


visiting groups of professionals. The month-longtraining programme was conducted for thestudents of Oslo University.

Work not completed

Planned new short-term courses were notlaunched. Also, the institutional developmentactivities planned, specifically of creating abusiness plan, producing marketing collaterals aswell as producing teaching materials, were notcompleted due to time constraints andinadequate staff capacity.

The long-term course for Indian students thatwas planned for October- December could not

be conducted due to lack of response. This willnow be conducted during the summer break.

Lessons learnt

As we start planning for the next year, it is clearthat several persistent challenges to growth willneed to be addressed. One is participants’capacity to attend training workshops in Delhi,often a constraint that prevents many fromattending courses, as they have to bear the costsof travel and stay in Delhi, in addition to the feescharged by AAGC. We will also need to sharpenour methods and strategies of spreading theword about training programmes, especially toreach a carefully targeted audience. In addition,in order to truly understand the practical impactof our training efforts and to build strongnetworks, we will have to make more effort tomaintain ties with alumni. Similarly, we will needto more carefully package teaching materials,and think of means to control the rising costs ofconducting training programmes.

More urgently, over the next year, we willconsider University Affiliation or attain a DeemedUniversity status — this not only to make coursesmore valuable for students, but also to allowAAGC to tie up with foreign universities andstudy abroad programmes. Similarly, to scale uptraining activities, we will need to pursue donor-funded international training tie-ups for a varietyof constituencies and to be able to shareinternational best practices in environmentalmanagement and regulation.

• The student programmes are impactfulbecause they are made to learn new ideas inan interesting and useful manner. Severalstudents wrote back to say that they areinterested to attend other CSE courses. In thecase of foreign students, many of them havecome back to India to undertake longer termprojects (5 from the previous course).

• The other new constituency was the regulatorsof the GRP workshops. The regulators foundthe programme very useful as implementingEIA is part of their daily work and they had notbeen given any training on the recent changesmade to the programme or provided inputs onhow it can be applied to bring aboutsustainable development. The learning fromthese workshops has been that there is a hugecapacity gap among regulators to use thepotential of EIA to influence gooddevelopment. There has also been a demandfor workshops on specific sectors.

• The feedback from the participants shows thatthe programmes fulfil a felt need. For instance,in the documentation workshops, mostparticipants are in the midst of creating orreorganising their information and thisprogramme is a good fit and thus ensures thatparticipants really put to practice theirlearning. Similarly, many participants of theRWH programme become consultants andthey have said how the workshop reallyhelped them to popularize RWH.

• The students of the Challenge of the Balanceprogramme produced, entirely on their own, amagazine, ReAct (http://www.cseindia.org/react.htm), together with a website and acampaign which they then exhibited at theUniversity of Oslo upon their return to Norway.This course has been rated highly by thestudents and even by the University authorities.Many students considered it the mostrewarding experience in their academic career. • “The Southern perspective is truly interesting

and it has been very useful to hear from peopleactually living in and being affected by the issueswe have learned about in Norway” - Ida Tuett.

• The best thing the training gives I think is thepractical experience on tasks and ways ofworking that will be very useful for many of usin our work in the future” – Ida Thomassen.

• “CSE’s training brings in great enrichment byexposing us to great Indian minds andenthusiasm which I believe is fundamental forengagement in the topic” – Alp Pit.

• “As I did not have a very in-depth knowledgeabout India’s environment and developmentissues, this training has become an eye openingexperience” – Thale H Eddie.

• “The course will always be at the back of mymind when I read and analyse the theories. Ifeel very privileged to have had the chance tobe here” – Magms.

Impact

Feedback from the students on ‘Challengeof the Balance’ course


The Media Resource Centre (MRC) largelyconcentrated on two broad areas of work.

The first of the two areas was the Seventh CSEMedia Fellowship Programme on ‘Rivers: Usedand Abused’, which was scheduled overOctober-November 2007. The Jury selected 11Fellows and the fellowship programmegenerated an extensive amount of reportage andbase studies on all the subject areas.

The second area of work was that the teamgot into book editing seriously this year andedited and brought out the book on mining, RichLands, Poor People: Is Sustainable MiningPossible? They then worked with the industryteam to organise a series of nationwide releasesof the report. The basic idea behind this was togenerate a debate around the topic of mining,especially in the context of the Indianparliament’s moves towards a new mining policyfor the country.

The team continued to reach out to mediathrough its Feature Service in Hindi and English.It organised press conferences on different topicsthroughout the year. Over the months, it has alsobecome an effective one-stop shop for journalistsscouting for information on environment: thegrowing numbers of telephone calls, e-mails etcthat the team receives every day requesting forinformation and help point towards this.

Objective: To build a community ofenvironmental writers through theFellowship programme

The seventh fellowship programme on Rivers:Used and Abused was announced in August 2007.The programme offered print and audio-visualjournalists a unique opportunity to travel,research and report on the state of our rivers, thereasons behind their conditions, the steps takenand their effectiveness and the impacts on thepeople and environment. More than 100applications were received and the selection ofthe finalists was done by a jury consisting of ArtiJeyrath, Bureau Chief, DNA; Om Thanvi,Executive Editor, Jansatta; Qamar W Naqvi, NewsDirector, Aaj Tak; and Sunil Jain, AssociateEditor, Business Standard on September 27, 2007in New Delhi. The criteria for selection includedoriginality of ideas, understanding andcomprehension of the issues, relevance of issues,analytical skills and the geographical spread.

Objective: To build capacity andprovide information through mediaworkshops

The team organised a workshop on riverpollution for journalists. About 17 journalists from

• Alok Prakash Putul, Editor, Deshbandhu,Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh): Putul reported inHindi on the privatization of some rivers incentral India.

• Anupama Kumari, freelancer writing forPrabhat Khabar, Ranchi (Jharkhand):Anupama re-looked at the Damodar river. Shewrote in Hindi.

• Dolonchapa Bhattacharya, Senior Reporter,India Today, Kolkata (West Bengal):Dolonchapa studied the changing courses ofthe Padma and the Bhagirathi in her state, andwrote in Bangla.

• Kanchan Vasudev, Senior Staff Correspondent,The Tribune, Ludhiana (Punjab): Kanchan didstories in English on the Sutlej.

• K Rajendran, Senior Correspondent, Kairali TV,New Delhi: Rajendran traveled back to hisnative state – Kerala – to study theBharathapuzha. He aired his programme inMalayalam.

• K Sajeevan, Senior Sub-editor, Mathrubhumi,Kannur (Kerala): Sajeevan, reporting inMalayalam, looked at the Valapattanam river inKerala.

• Manipadma Jena, freelancer writing for EPW,Bhubaneshwar (Orissa): Manipadma coveredthe Mahanadi in her state. She wrote inEnglish.

• Parvez Ahmad Bhatt, Senior Correspondent,The Kashmir Times, Srinagar (J&K): Parvez wasasked to study the Jhelum in his state.

• Rajesh Kumar Singh, Principal Correspondent,The Hindustan Times, Lucknow (UP): Rajeshreported in English on the state of the Gomti.

• Rajshekhar Pant, freelancer writing for SaharaTimes, Bhimtal (Uttarakhand): Rajshekharpublished his stories in Hindi and English. Hisriver of choice was the Nandhaur inUttarakhand.

• Sobhapati Samom, Correspondent of TheAssam Tribune and The Hindustan Times inImphal (Manipur): Sobhapati wrote in Englishon Manipur’s Nambul river.

Media resource centre (Souparno Banerjee, Shachi Chaturvedi)

The Fellows of the Seventh CSE MediaFellowships


outside Delhi and 5-6 journalists from Delhiattended the two-day workshop.

Participants of the workshop on riverpollution found it very useful. Kulsum Talha,senior Lucknow-based journalist said that theworkshop updated her knowledge on riverpollution. Aditya Kant, of the HT-Chandigarh,said, ‘It was a good enriching experience in theworkshop, with quite interesting insights’.

Objective: To strengthen the communityof environmental writers with regularinformation on issues and resourcepersons

The team continues to produce the FeatureService in Hindi and English which is wellappreciated. Over the months, the unit hasbecome an effective one-stop shop for journalistsscouting for information on environment: thegrowing numbers of telephone calls, e-mails etcthat the team receives every day requesting forinformation and help point towards this. MsSusannah Fisher, from the University College,London, interviewed the team member for aproject on how the Indian media has beenreporting on climate change issues. Mr StefanoVecchia, an Italian journalist based in Bangkok,got in touch with the team unit for an interviewon various social and environmental issues.Journalists from across the country approachedthe team for information and inputs on issuessuch as forests, forest cases in the court, diesel,

cement industry and other environmental issues.The governor of West Bengal called up the

media fellow Ms Dolonchapa Bhattacharya ofIndia Today on the article on the erosion inGanga in Malda region prepared as part of thefellowship.

Objective: To support CSE teams in theirawareness raising activities

The team worked closely with CSE’s sustainableindustrialization programme team to bring out thebook, Rich Lands, Poor People: Is SustainableMining Possible? It then worked to release thepublication in Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Panjimand Ranchi. In the first four cities, the respectivestate governors released the book. In most ofthese functions, separate press briefings wereorganised for the benefit of local media. Theevents received large-scale participation from allwalks of life - including mining communities frominteriors of the states, industry representatives,lawyers, academicians and researchers, etc - andgenerated extensive reportage and coverage. Thebasic idea behind this was to generate a debatearound the topic of mining, especially in thecontext of the Indian parliament’s moves towardsa new mining policy for the country.

The team also worked with the team of Citywater-waste to help the Department of drinkingwater supply produce their 150-page visiondocument titled “Bringing Sustainability toDrinking water Systems in Rural India”.

Erosion caused by Padma and Bhagirathi rivers in West Bengal, taken by a CSE media fellow


The directive by the Supreme Court to makeenvironment education mandatory in schools

and colleges was a landmark directive.However, it has also created huge problems forschools and colleges because there are nostandard publications, no specific modules andno way of sharing information with each other.

So a vacuum exists on three fronts:• Initiative to train teachers on ‘how to teach

Environment’.• Books, journals, films or any accessible

teaching material• A platform for educators to share techniques,

students’ responses, and experiences.The Environment education unit has three

separate programmes to address these needs.The Green School Programme shows teachers‘how to teach environment’; the Gobar Timesprovides informational resources that teacherscan use; and, the unit has also started forums forteachers to meet and discuss issues andexperiences. Gobar Talk brings the readerstogether and helps team members to learn aboutreaders’ perspectives and preferences.

During the year, the team focussed onstrengthening the Green Schools Programmeacross the country. The Green SchoolProgramme is gradually but seriously movinginto the interior parts of the schools community.In partnership with Salwan Public School, theunit set up a Green Schools Programme LearningCentre in Gurgaon.

One of the major activities during the yearwas the Gobar Times Green Schools Festival,which was organised on December 17th 2007 inNew Delhi to felicitate the top 20 schools in India.The NCERT director Dr Krishna Kumar felicitatedthe award ceremony. Hundreds of students and

teachers participated in this programme andmade the festival a great success. All theparticipating schools were issued certificates.

Objective 1: To add to the body ofenvironmental information andknowledge available with the educatorsthrough informational products.

Gobar Times continued to be produced. Last year,the focus was to use its content more strategicallyto reach out to a larger group of audience. Thetopics were more contextual and related to currentissues and concerns. A new initiative waslaunched in the form of The Gobar Talk, which isa meeting of educators and others interested in

Gobar Times Green School Award ceremony

I’ve been a reader of DTE since 12+ years andhence been a reader of Gobar Times since itsinception. And it has been a wonderful, eye-opening ride! Many a times content from GT hasformed the basis of EVS projects for my child andother students too. With the bouquet deliver, thebrickbats... there are none.

– Paresh, Via e-mail

Thank you for being so lively and interesting! I,being the head of an institution, take care thatGobar Times is read by most in the staff andstudents. Sometimes, I send special notes to mycolleagues from itI would like to have someone comedown to our school and talk to young learnersabout preservation, and also see how we are tryingin our little ways to follow the conservation.

– Gurmeet Singh, Principal

DAV Sr. Sec. Public School Cheeka, Kaithal (Haryana)

You are doing a good job. Although I am 60+, I donot miss the opportunity to go through it fully. WhatI feel is that there is need to penetrate all primaryand secondary schools, especially so in thehinterland.

– PCS Rautela Air Vice-Marshal (Retd.)

Though I teach M. Tech to environment students,whenever I receive DTE, I go through GT first. Theways in which difficult issues are dealt with amusesme. To read Panditji’s views and concerns gives mea whale of a time. Thanks are due to the hardworking CSE team for keeping us updated onenvironmental issues.

– Nivedita Kaul, Deptt. of Civil Engg, MNIT Jaipur

Environment education(Sumita Dasgupta, Shankar Musafir, Ashish Shah, Suparna Banerjee)

Letters from readers


environment. It offers a forum for participants todiscuss environmental issues in depth and in theprocess learn about new perspectives.

The magazine completed 10 years and thespecial issue to mark this was filled with games,activities and quizzes which received an over-whelming response from the readers. What wasnotable was that many educators write to say thatthey found the magazine extremely useful.Though the target readership is school students,the range of subjects that are dealt with in GTattracted readers from all age groups andbackgrounds. Many other responses noted howthe magazine deconstructed topical and complexissues and made interesting and easilyunderstandable. There are also continuingrequests to make the magazine available on itsown, unlike the current pattern of coming as asupplement to Down To Earth.

The team published the second revisededition of the Green Schools Programme manual.More than 10,000 copies were sold during theyear. The team received a request from theKarnataka state unit of the National Green Corpsprogramme for 8500 copies of the manual and thebulk of this was the language version to enablelarger reach. Downloadable activity sheets ondifferent issues of environment were posted inPDF format on the website to assist teachers inteaching of environmental issues in schools.

Objective: To build capacities ofeducators to impart concepts ofsustainable development

The team conducted 16 teachers trainingprogrammes to train more than 500 secondaryschool teachers about how to implement theGreen Schools Programme. A master trainersprogramme for teachers was conducted by CSE.More than 500 teachers were empowered withknowledge and their capacities were improved toteach about environmental issues in their schoolsand about 2500 students participated inenvironmental activities during the year.

Objective: To strengthen the hands ofeducators and school management togive priority to good environmentalpractices

The team collaborated with the National GreenCorps to network with schools and implementthe Green Schools programme. The membershipincreased considerably to 3500. Of these 400schools participated in the Green Schools Award

programme. The second ‘Gobar Times GreenSchool Festival’ was organised on December 17,2007 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.The event was used to catalyse interest amongstudents through events such as skits, paintingcompetitions etc.

As part of the festival, several interactiveprogrammes were organised. A paintingcompetition received good response as morethan 250 students participated. An exhibition wasalso put up at the venue in which ten chosenschools from across the country had showcasedtheir work on the Green Schools Programme.Students took part enthusiastically in street playsand dance programmes. Environmental filmswere also shown. Theme pavilions were put upto enable participating schools to display theirwork under the Green Schools Programme.

• First prize - Government Secondary School,Boormajra, Ropar, Punjab. This school baggedthe first prize for second consecutive year fortheir excellent work in adopting sustainablepractices to improve the school’s performance.Students of the school produced minutelydetailed information on water, land, air andenergy.

• Second prize - Government Secondary School,Daramdin, Sikkim. As a first timer in the GreenSchool Programme, this rural school which isin a remote corner of South Sikkim, presenteda well tabulated and researched audit data andsecured its position to become the secondwinner.

• Third prize - Apeejay School, Pitampura, NewDelhi. The school’s water audit includedmonitoring of overhead tanks. Studentsphysically measured the catchment area to getan exact area. The energy audit was amasterpiece as the school conducted audit forthe past two years and allotted points for eachmonth.

• Best students’ audit team award - ApeejaySchool, New Delhi. The audit teams of thisschool were represented by all senior classesand separate teams were organised for thedifferent modules.

• Best teachers award - The VishwabhartiSchool, Noida, U.P. The teachers of this schoolworked with their students to turn inimmaculate data sheets with great enthusiasmand honesty.

Prize winners of the Gobar times-GreenSchool Programme Awards


Prof. Krishna Kumar, Director, NationalCouncil for Educational Research and Training(NCERT) presented the awards to the top 20schools. Government Secondary School,Boormajra, Ropar, Punjab bagged the first prizefor second consecutive year for their excellentwork in adopting sustainable practices toimprove the school’s performance. Theparticipation of rural/peri urban schools rose to 9from 3 the previous year. The National GreenCorps (NGC) of Punjab was awarded the bestNGC state award for making maximum schoolsparticipate in the GSP. To motivate the studentsand teachers alike, other awards such as Beststudents’ audit team award, Best teachers awardwere also given.

The Green School Award programme waswell covered in the media and all leadingnewspapers like Hindustan Times, Tribune, TheIndian Express, Times of India carried reports onthe same. The event was also covered byelectronic media like CNN-IBN, Lok Sabha, AajTak, Metro Nation etc.

Objective: To provide a forum forpolicymakers, educators and studentsto exchange experiences aboutenvironment education

For the first time, CSE organised a meeting withNCERT, which sets the school curriculum, andthe Directors of State Nodal Agencies ofNational Green Corps(NGC). The National

Educators Meet was conducted on 16 December2007 and was attended by state NGCrepresentatives from Jammu and Kashmir,Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa,Goa and Tamil Nadu.

The discussions were useful and CSE hopes to provide inputs to the curriculumsetting process. The NGC of Karnataka decidedto implement the Green Schools Programme in7500 schools and 250 pre-university colleges inthe state and the GSP manual was translatedinto Kannada for use in the schools. Talks are on with several State NGC nodal offices to translate the manual in regional languages. Hindi and Kannada versions arealready in print.

• The NCERT team writing new textbooks onpolitical science requested for inputs for asection on ‘ Social movements like Chipko andNarmada Bachao’.

• Inputs on environment education was provide atthe 4th World Environmental EducationCongress held at Durban.

• Presentation on environment education foruniversity teachers, at the Delhi UniversityCampus

• Lecture at the Times Foundation’s ‘ConcernPlanet Initiative’, which was attended by 150schools in and around the National CapitalTerritory of Delhi.

• Pro Quest Information and Learning, US,requested permission to reprint the story‘Carbon: The Building Block of Life’

• World Health Organisation requested for anaudit report based on the Green SchoolsMethodology

• Tehelka Foundation requested inputs at a

workshop to teach representatives schools from200 schools to undertake water audit.

Request for training programmes

• Mansoor Shah an eminent environmental lawyerbased in Pakistan requested CSE’s help toorganize the Green School Programme inPakistan

• The National Green Corps Uttaranchal andKarnataka has invited CSE to conduct trainingprogramme for the teachers in their states.

• Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation(CCEC), Bangladesh requested a trainingworkshop on Green Schools Programme.

• Enviro Vigil, a Maharashtra based NGOapproached to facilitate teachers’ trainingworkshop for teachers in Thane.

• Environmental groups from Vietnam haverequested training on the Green SchoolsProgramme.

Impact indicators: Recognition from peer groups, request for policy inputs

National Educators’ Meet, 16 December, 2007


The environment resources unit continued itsactivities through information collection and

documentation to support various research andadvocacy programmes. The objectives of theunit have been reframed to focus on web-basedinformation research and advocacydissemination and outreach to facilitate onlineaccess to a comprehensive range of resourcesand database of environmental resourcesarchived by one of the best documentationfacilities in the South Asia.

The team continued with documentation ofbooks, documents, journals, CD-ROMs andarticles/ and also worked towards building itscollection of digital books, studies, reports,articles, research papers, news clippings andphotographs. Internal current awareness serviceswere provided to keep the core programme staffupdated on the relevant and significant books,journals, articles, etc. The unit also carried outshort term training programmes on informationmanagement and documentation.

Objective: To make available a centralrepository of environmentalinformation in India

The key work was to build a knowledge portalon environment, which will be a single stop-gateway for research resources, information and

knowledge on environment with focus on Indiaand South Asia. The portal, a collaborative effortwith the Knowledge Commission was launchedin April 2008.

Using an open source portal contentmanagement system (CMS), the team hasstreamlined the information collection anddocumentation system. The portal has access to40,000 records from Down To Earth, which wasearlier available only to the subscribers. Inaddition to this information, approximately2,00,000 records — news clippings, journalarticles, reports & documents and a selection ofimportant books — are also made available onthe portal. Information filing, search and browsefacility is based on the Topic Tree – a thesaurusof over 7,000 keywords on key environmentaland developmental issues, people, organisationsand geographical locations.

Hardware upgradation included computers,dedicated internet connection, iInstallation anduse of “Abby Fine Reader” for scanning, OCR ofscanned materials and conversion into PDFformat. Drupal CMS, an open source softwarewas also obtained.

The unit plans to extend the environmentportal further as a collaborative platform. This will involve working with other NGO’s colleges, research institutions foridentifying the data/information/knowledge

Training session in progress

Environment resources unit/knowledge portal(Kiran Pandey,Madhumita Paul, K M Sheeja, Susan Chacko, Sarika Gaur, D S Thapliyal, Shompa Das, Rashmi Kumari, and Jaidev Sharma)


available, understand the knowledge gaps, andformalise a practical and easy way of bringingtogether useful information on the internet. Thiswill also include development of a wiki-directory of people and institutions working inrelated fields.

Designed as a virtual media resource centre,the portal will make information on events andissues accessible with backgrounders andresource materials. It will also include severalsurvival guides, or tool kits for action and bestpractices — information on what people can doand where they can find help on a host ofenvironmental issues.

Objective: Document and disseminateinformation on environmental issues

Regular documentation and dissemination servicessuch as articles alert, daily environment news alertwere restructured and continued to keep the staffupdated on developments in the area. The team

also continued with its monthly products of GreenFiles. The audio-visual team documentedphotographs on a variety of environmental issuesduring the year. The total strength of the databasestands at 45,000. The e-newsletter now reaches to1.5 lakh people across the globe.

An additional service E-doc Alerts was startedby the team from July 2007 onwards to provideinformation on the latest central and stategovernment reports, notifications as well as reportsof international organizations and agencies.

About 220 visitors from India and abroadused the resources for reference and researchduring the year. The audio-visual unit has beenapproached by several national and internationalmedia organizations such as CNN, BBC, ABCNews, Newsweek and TIME Magazine forphotographs, film footages. Organisations alsoconsulted the audio-visual section on suitablelocations to shoot pictures on environmentalissues. The database is used as an effectivemarketing tool for training programmes and CSEproducts. Users accessed the site more than 3.5lakh times for information on the website.

Objective: Build capacity and expandconstituencies of people through short-term training programmes

Two trainings were organised foraround 55 participants from nationaland international organisations. Wefound that this training programmenot only attracted informationmanagers but a large number ofresearchers, academicians,consultants, scientific officers, andwebsite developers as well. Thediscussions on portal developmentand significance of open source

softwares, using theCSE case study wereappreciated bymany of theparticipants. PANAP, Malaysia, aparticipant of the documentationtraining, is workingto bring out athesaurus andsought the guidanceof CSE in putting thethesaurus togetherand identifyingenvironment terms.


Over the past year, the website unit launchedtwo major initiatives – it worked with the ERU

on the India Environment Portal, and it developedthe Down To Earth e-magazine. It also achievedthe milestone of more than one million page viewsper month on all CSE web properties put together.

The Down To Earth e-magazine is a digitalreplica of the printed version of the magazine,which simultaneously enhances user experiencethrough innovative features, such as allowingsubscribers to clip and electronically store theirfavourite articles. Users can also download, printand share exact page replicas of the printedmagazine. The voice feature is especially helpfulto the visually disabled who can now hear thetext of the articles read out electronically. The e-magazine also allows easy access and contentsharing via RSS feeds. In particular, with the costsof printing, distribution and postage only gettinghigher each year, the Down To Earth e-magazineis a more reliable and efficient way to reach outto subscribers living outside India.

Objective 1: To make environmentalinformation from DTE easily andeconomically available

The Down To Earth e-magazine is a digitalreplica of the printed version of the magazine,which simultaneously enhances user experiencethrough innovative features, such as allowingsubscribers to clip and electronically store theirfavourite articles. Users can also download, printand share exact page replicas of the printedmagazine. The voice feature is especially helpfulto the visually disabled who can now hear thetext of the articles read out electronically. The e-magazine also allows easy access and contentsharing via RSS feeds. In particular, with the costsof printing, distribution and postage only gettinghigher each year, the Down To Earth e-magazineis a more reliable and efficient way to reach outto subscribers living outside India.

Objective: To make availableenvironmental information in thecountry from a single source

The website team worked with the EnvironmentResources Unit (ERU) to launch the first phase ofthe Environment Portal. While the ERU providedaccess to information, the website took

responsibility to oversee the design andimplementation of the portal.

This is an important initiative as much of theinformation and data on environmental issues inthe country remains in unpublished materials,materials in Indian languages or simply researchand data not available on the Internet. The Indiaenvironment portal is an effort to proactivelynetwork with information and knowledgecommunities across the country involved inenvironmental issues.

The proprietary software, OMNIDOCS, hasbeen replaced by “Drupal”, an open source CMS.This will help the team to provide a full text andsubject specific search facility across the entirenews-archive. This system has also integrated thenews archive with other information resources –books, documents, articles, etc. Anothersoftware, Abby Fine Reader, was also put inplace for converting hard copies into soft copies.

To make the search for informationresources more accurate and contextual, allinformation will be manually tagged according toa detailed thesaurus of more than 700environmental terms. This customised thesauruswill allow researchers to track each resource, notjust by subject area, but where it is located andwho is the agent involved.

More than a mere information repository,and in order to be a truly collaborative andnetworked project, the portal will developcommon systems for collection, tagging andaccessioning information from governmentinstitutions and tap into other research and policynetworks. When completed, it will allowinstitutions and individuals to actively contributeand share information across a commonplatform. The portal is being developed on anopen source platform, and all content will becopyrighted under the creative commons license.

Website unit(S K Mishra, Allan Lyngdoh, Vasudha Kuthiala)


In order to ensure that planned activities areexecuted and desired objectives are attained,

CSE continuously monitors the performanceagainst planned programmes. From a simplemonitoring of execution of activities, themonitoring system has been enhanced andexpanded to include the assessment of executionand impacts of activities of each staff member aswell as teams. The entire system has beenautomated and put on the intranet so that all staffmembers have access to their annual plans andthe progress made by the teams. Every staffmember, programme or management, isexpected to update progress on implementationof plans along with outcomes and impacts on amonthly basis.

The performance monitoring system givesthe following reports:• Schedule of activities: are we on track• Rating of activities: are we completing the

priority programmes (based on the weight-ages given)

• Staff performance: which staff has completedwhat

• Team performance: which team has

completed how much• Contribution to DTE: which team/staff has

contributed to DTELast year we moved from monitoring and

tracking the activities to monitoring objectivesand impacts, hence the annual plan was madeobjective-wise and impact indicators weredeveloped for each of our objectives. This yearwe also introduced a system of peer review byother programme leaders. A group of 3-5members and a chairperson, reviews the annualplan of each unit. The final plan is put up forapproval after incorporating comments.

The monitoring is tracked through an onlinemonitoring system, that tracks each person’sprogress on the annual plans. The consolidatedmonitoring report for the year is given as aseparate report.

Institutional developmentPERFORMANCE MONITORING

CSE

Web

DTE

EEUWWATER

GRPRWH

RIVERAAGC

APC

0

20

40

60

80

100

(in

per

cen

tag

e)

PRODACCT

BAFPMR

ERU-N

ADMN

EIDUERU-B

ERU-AVIT

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

(in

per

cen

tag

e)

Annual task achievement: Performance ofprogramme units

Performance of support units

Unit-wise performance

Programme Support

Units Achievement Units Achievement(in per cent) (in per cent)

WEB 90 ACCT 97

EEU 67 ADMN 90

GRP 57 EIDU 85

APC 40 ERU 81

DTE 90 IT 74

AAGC 42 PMR 92

NRML 89 SALES 98

RIVER 48 PROD 100

WWATER 57 BFC 95

URWH 52

Total Prog. 67 Total 86Support

Overall 75

75

67

808281

72

69 76

62

7478

58Programme Units

Overall CSE

02 – 03 03 – 04 04 – 05 05 – 06 06 – 07 07 – 08

CSE performance 2002-2008


HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Staff turnover

Chart – I and II give a clear indication offavourable dynamics over the years as far as staffleaving statistics is concerned. The turnoverpercentage has come down from 26.5% to 15% inthe last 4 years, as also the percentage of “Staffasked to leave”, which has gone down from 31%to 11%. Unlike yester years, almost 75% of the

staff left is among those who have served lessthan 2 years in CSE, which means CSE has notlost much in terms of trained staff.

Gender pattern: We have had the followinggender distribution at CSE this year: Female –39%, Male – 61% and the average age of staff hasbeen 37 years which is indicative of a young staff.

Performance of major outputs planned

No Outputs Programme/unit Status Planned Over and above plans

1a Publication of book on Mining Green Rating Project team + Completed 33Media team

1b Release of book in Green Rating Project team + Completed 33different cities Media team

2 Publication of book on CWW team Not completed 33urban water management

3 Publication of manual on CWW team Completed 33wastewater recycling

4 Publication of manual on URWH team Not completed 33water harvesting

5 Publication of manual on GSP EE team Completed 33

6 GSP Awards EE team Completed 33

7 Monographs – NREGA NRML team Completed 33

8 Yamuna book releases Water pollution team Completed 33

9 Workshop on mining GRP+ Media team Completed 33

10 River pollution fellowship Water pollution + Media team Completed 33

11 Short-term and long-term Various teams under the Completed for 33training programmes aegis of AAGC the most part.

12 Curriculum and reading materials AAGC team Not done 33

13 Feasibility report for AAGC AAGC team Not done 33

14 New workshop launches AAGC team Not done 33

15 Environment portal Web + ERU team Completed 33

16 Interiors of both buildings Administration Completed 33

15.2

22.618.9

26.5

2004 – 05 2005 – 06 2006 – 07 2007 – 08

41

31

28

17

33

50

13

12

75

24

11

65

0

20

40

60

80

100

2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Better Prospects Asked to Leave Personnel

(in

per

cen

tag

e)

Chart -1: Lowering staff turnover patterns (%)

Chart-2: Changing staff turnover patterns


This year 47 volunteers and 31 internscontributed 3123 human days, which is

equivalent to contribution in days of 12 regularemployees (considering 253 working days in ayear). The volunteers’ database now has over3,000 registrations and is constantly being usedfor various CSE and non-CSE projects and events.The volunteers / interns have been in the agegroup of 19 and 55 years.

This year we had about 700 registrations ofwhich 12% of the registrations are from abroad,60% from outside Delhi and the rest from Delhi.Nineteen volunteers joined us from other states of India while 17 volunteers and internscame from universities abroad this year.Volunteer–Intern usage by Programme Units hasbeen 60% as against 40% by Support Units. Asmany as 6 volunteers and interns contributedarticles for the magazine, Down To Earth, withword count of over 10,000 words.

CSE has also built up long-term relations withsome institutions of repute that sends qualifiedvolunteers and interns on regular basis. Forinstance, the All Jewish World Service (AJWS,USA) collaborated with us in 2007 and has alreadyplaced 2 candidates with us. Mount HolyokeCollege, Canada, started sending interns from 2006onwards, and we have a long-standing relationwith EWB (Engineers without border), UK whohave sent 2-3 interns every year since 2004.

Some noteworthy contributions byvolunteers and interns:• Interns from Tata Dhan Academy (Mr.

Subodh Kr. And Vinod Panday) did anextensive survey of NREGA programme invarious districts in the NCR of Delhi.

• Most volunteers extended help in organizingthe Yamuna book release function and inorganizing the symposium on mining.

• Mr. Manpreet Singh, Ms. Swati Sharma and Ms.Sriti Ganguly’s contribution as volunteersduring the Green School Programme awardfunction in December 2007 was noteworthyand highly appreciated.

• Volunteers actively participated in a publicmeeting on river pollution held at Agra.

• Sarabjit Butalia, a middle aged man from themerchant navy, and a long term volunteer inCSE, screened a film “Invaders from the sea”,which won the Best UN Feature Film Award,2007. He volunteered this year too, on researchon marine and aviation related emission issues

for Air Pollution Campqign (APC). • Mr. Harry Hoffman, a German intern carried

out a study on ‘bio-fuels’ in India and did astatus report on the issue for APC

• Ms. Archana Bharadwaj did a base paper on “challenges of Aviation industry in India’for APC.

• Chandan Kumar, an Ex-TISS student hasbeen interning with the GRP and working ona study ‘The corporate influence on publicpolicies in India

Delhi India-other cities Abroad

Geographical pattern of volunteer usage

Map of volunteers from different cities of India

Unit Number of Total days volunteers worked

Poverty & Environment 5 114

Urban water harvesting 3 117

City water-waste campaign 6 215

River pollution 11 238

Industry-environment 12 537

DTE 9 274

Right to Clean Air campaign 8 230

Environment Education 4 91

Documentation 6 546

Database 5 368

Funding, Admn, EIDU & PMR 10 393

Volunteer programme

Unit-wise use of volunteers


RIGHT TO CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN

Overall objective

To drive and implement, policy changetowards a sustainable mobility in urban

centres of the country, with a focus on NewDelhi. A large part of this work will be to firstbring about improved air quality in Indian cities.

Specific objectives

• Bring about fuel economy standards forvehicles;

• Strengthen public transport in Delhi;• Reducing diesel emissions; and,• Reducing congestion and pollution.

Plans for the year 2008-09This year the mobility campaign will be scaled upand the work on securing improved air quality inother cities will be put on priority. In addition, anew initiative of building capacities amongregulators and other officials involved in urbantransport systems will be undertaken. Moreover,the team will also look at urban issues in totalitylooking at energy and waste issues.

The campaign team will have a rolling planto target the campaign goals on an ongoingbasis. This will target priorities and the policyopportunities in our core campaign areas of airquality policies, public transport andcongestion reduction campaigns, tax andpricing policies related to transportation andmobility, auto fuel policy to push thetechnology leapfrog agenda, energy Impact ofmotorisation (fuel economy regulations) andothers. Research will be carried out to supportthese initiatives for policy change.

Air pollution and mobility programme: Theaim will be to scale up the programme to securepublic health, reduce energy Impact and achievesustainable mobility: Within this framework thefollowing initiatives are being initiated this year: • Assessment of the first generation and

second generation air quality reformprogrammes to chart the way forward inDelhi.

• Estimation of the trend in pollution load fromvehicles after the implementation of the firstgeneration reforms. This will primarily focus

on the comparative contribution from thepersonal vehicles and public transportvehicles vis a vis their carrying capacity. The team will continue its work in the

following areas:• Strengthen the public transport campaign —

campaign to support bus rapid transportproject and augmentation of bus transport inDelhi and integration of all publictransportation modes.

• Campaign for congestion reductionstrategies. The key strategies to be pushedinclude parking policy, taxes and pricingrelated to public transport and personaltransport in cities.

• Support the city action plans to combat airpollution in different cities of India.

• Influence Auto Fuel Policy to get cleantechnologies and address the problem ofdieselization

• Continue to push for fuel economyregulations for vehicles and ensure that it iscrafted appropriately

Regional activities on air pollution andtraining: Capacity building for air qualitymanagement and mobility management will bean important thrust area of our work. Towardsthis end the team will organize trainingprogrammes for the key target groups includingregulators, civil society groups, industry andmedia. These programmes will be organised at aregional level to support the ongoing initiative oncity action plans.

Sustainable cities programme: The ambit ofthe programme will be broadened this year toachieve the ultimate goal of moving towardssustainable cities. How can the city define itsgoals in a way that is more sustainable? Theprogramme will assess the ways to reduce city’suse of natural resources and production ofwastes while simultaneously improving thelivability. How can city go about achieving anintegrated approach? As an entry level project weplan to demonstrate the linkages betweenresource use and waste generation and the waysthese can be managed to minimize both throughan environment impact assessment of resourceintensive mega commercial complexes and mallsthat have begun to invade the urban spaceleading to most inequitous use of urban land andresources. Detailed energy, water and waste

Annual plans for the year 2008-09


audits of these structures will be carried out to setthe agenda for policy action.

We will create a manual to do thisassessment and then carry out the assessment. Inaddition to using these assessments for policyaction training modules will be created.

WATER PROGRAMMES

THE URBAN RAINWATER HARVESTING PROGRAMME

Overall objective

To mainstream the idea of rainwater harvestingwithin the policy and practice of watermanagement for meeting the basic water needs ofthe people;

Specific objectives

• To build capacities in society to undertakedecentralised and rational urban watermanagement

• To generate new knowledge and documentpeople’s efforts in the area of urban watermanagement

• To disseminate information collected andknowledge generated widely to catalysesociety to take proactive measures for urbanwater management

Plans for the year 2008-09The team will continue to work to popularise theidea and practice of rain water harvesting inurban areas.

Building capacity in society for harvestingrainwater: The team will continue to conducttraining programmes. The new and revisedmanual will be completed and published. Inaddition, a training reader will also be produced.A total of 4 training workshops will be conducted.

Generating new knowledge and documentpeople’s efforts: We plan to revise and updatethe current website. The new case studies thathave been collected will be updated on thewebsite. The team will also travel to learn aboutnew developments in the area, Impact of policiesor new efforts initiated by people. Water qualityand levels will be monitored in model projectswithin and outside Delhi to gather data on theimpact of rain water harvesting.

Disseminate information on rainwaterharvesting(RWH) widely: Reports will be

published in the magazine and team memberswill also undertake lectures in schools,workshops and other fora.

Strengthen people working on/interested inRWH: This year we are helping build a Rain centrein Burdwan. The team will also develop a toolkit sothat others who want to start a Rain Centre can doit easily. In addition, the team will continue toprovide technical help for other projects includingmodel projects in and out of Delhi.

A new activity will be the development ofwater audits that can then be undertaken forpeople.

RIGHT TO CLEAN RIVERS CAMPAIGN

Overall objective

To bring about a change in national policies toensure clean rivers with the aim of providing safedrinking water to all.

Specific objectives

• Create new knowledge and understandingon alternative solutions for clean rivers andpush for policy change

• Created forums to facilitate sharing ofknowledge, strategies and experiences onriver clean-up programmes

• Create awareness and build capacities towork on alternate solutions for river clean-upthrough reportage and training

Plans for the year 2008-09Policies and programmes for river pollutioncontrol look at water use, waste generation andpollution in isolation and hence a piecemealapproach towards river cleaning. The riverpollution campaign aims to re-establish the linkbetween society and the river, and also water,excreta and pollution.

Creating new knowledge and understandingon alternative solutions for clean rivers andpush for policy change: The policy paper onCommon Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) willbe completed this year. As this technology is theprincipal technology is use for control of pollutionin the country, the attempt is to review thetechnology to see hoe it can improved foreffective implementation. A roundtable meeting ofregulators will be organised to discuss strategies toaddress the technological, administrative andregulatory challenges facing the CETPs


A policy paper on Jawahar Lal NehruNational Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) willassess whether the JNNURM projects are leadingto sustainable water management in rivers. Thepolicy paper will prescribe mid-course changesin strategies if required to make the programmeeffective. The 100,000-crore JNNURMprogramme has set an agenda for urbaninfrastructure building. The projects fundedinclude water, sewage and river conservationprojects. The paper will be discussed atroundtables organised in different parts of the country.

Facilitate sharing of knowledge, strategiesand experiences on river clean-upprogrammes: CSE will undertake a communityenvironmental audit and monitoringprogramme in Pali. The objective of thisprogramme is to support civil society groups inPali, Rajasthan to monitor the activitiesundertaken by the government and industriesto clean the river Bandi. The attempt will beexpand the programme gradually to helpcommunities in different parts of the country toevolve as watchdogs. As part of this effort, CSEwill conduct meetings and training workshopsfor civil society groups in and around Pali.

A monograph on community initiatives inriver conservation, profiling the initiatives by civil society groups and others to fightpollution and other activities threatening riverswill be prepared. Training workshops for civilsociety groups from different parts of thecountry on conducting communityenvironmental audits. A river fighters networkwill be organised. The network will be kickedoff with a national conference on riverpollution, which will aim to find solutions toconserve rivers.

Reportage: Regular reportage in Down To Earthon various water issues.

CITY WATER-WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

Overall objective

To bring policy change to ensure that citiessource water and clean up their waste water at the city level and cities do not become ‘water parasites’ on rural India. The aim is tobuild a strong city-wide movement for water-waste management through meeting andnetworking with local planners, policy makersand NGOs.

Specific objectives

• Build knowledge on alternate sewagemanagement practices through research anddocumentation

• Build capacities in civil society to movetowards alternate sewage managementsystems.

• Awareness creation through model projects,and documentation of case studies

Plans for the year 2008-09Advocacy on urban water and sewagemanagement: The book on urban water andsewage management will be published. Thebook will bring together information andknowledge on the current state of water andsewage management in more than 70 cities ofIndia. The book will point towards alternate andsustainable ways of managing water supply andwaste water in cities of India. The book will bereleased in different cities of India to create wideawareness and an ownership among themunicipal bodies of different cities.

Capacity building for creating decentralisedsewage treatment systems: The team willundertake training workshops for professionals andNGOs in Delhi and also encourage students to takean interest in these issues by conducting specialprogrammes for students in colleges out f Delhi.

Facilitate implementers to exchangeinformation and experiences: The team willwork with local groups to translate the manual intoregional languages so that the system can bewidely taken up by the society. It will also organisea meeting that will bring policymakers, NGOs,experts, donors together to discuss the issue anddevelop strategies to take the issue forward.

Popularise alternative wastewater treatmenttechnology through model projects,lectures, presentations, release of manualand films in different cities: The team willtarget educational institutions and largehouseholds/farmhouses where there is nosewage connection, which are in peri-urban/suburban areas to build model projects.We will also try to design and implement suchprojects in non-sewer colony areas/slums insmall towns as a pilot project.

During the year, events will be organised incities across the country to create awarenessabout the issue and catalyse people to implementthese systems. The release of the revised manual,


Do it yourself, and the film, will be used to buildmass awareness. The events will also be used tonetwork with groups working in different citiesto help build model projects on alternativesewage management systems.

SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIALISATION

Overall objective

To push for policy and mindset changes neededto bring about sustainable industrialisation

Specific objectives

• To undertake advocacy for sustainablemining.

• To engage with the industrial sector toimprove its environmental performance.

• To build a network of NGOs, localcommunities and the panchayats, who canbe watchdogs to the process ofenvironmental clearance in the country.

• To strengthen the regulatory system in thecountry.

Plans for the year 2008-09Advocacy for sustainable mining: The 6thState of India’s Environment report on miningwill be released in a public function in 4 moremineral states – Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya,Rajasthan and Dehradun. The public functionwould include discussion on sustainable miningand other issues related to mining. A pressbriefing/release will also be organised in NewDelhi to discuss and critique the New NationalMineral Policy to sensitise the policy makers,efforts will be made to make presentations toparliamentarians.

Engage with the industrial sector: The cross-sectoral rating of 200 companies on energy andwater will be undertaken. Best practises inenergy and water efficiency will be compiled for20 industrial sectors of the country. A programme to build capacities within thefinancial and investor community onenvironmental due diligence will be undertaken.The programme includes the preparation of atraining module and conducting a trainingprogramme.

Engage and strengthen community groupsand NGOs: Training programmes will beconducted on environmental clearance processand other development issues. New training

programmes will be developed on mining andurban infrastructure projects. A dedicatedCommunity Support Centre will beoperationalised to respond to needs ofcommunities quickly and efficiently. The aim isto provide technical assistance to 10-12 projectsin a year.

To strengthen the regulatory system: Thereport on the state of regulatory system andregulations in India will be released in a publicmeeting. A roundtable meeting will be organisedwhere members of all state pollution controlboard would discuss the key findings of thereport and identify areas for strengtheningregulator’s capacity. An action plan for futurestrategy for strengthening the regulatory systemin the country will be developed as an outcomeof the discussions.

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTAGE

Overall objective

To create informed public opinion by bringingtogether information, including a range ofperspectives, to catalyse debate, discussion andaction on key areas of sustainable development.

Specific objectives

• To report changes around us and catalysechanges we need at every possible level.

• To research and report on currenthappenings with analysis and insight.

• To increase the coverage of news and eventsin south Asia.

Plans for the year 2008-09The team will make an effort to increasecoverage of rural issues. The team will also beginthe planning for coverage of other south Asiacountries by putting together a database ofjournalists based in these countries who cantravel, research and write for us.

ANIL AGARWAL GREEN COLLEGE

Overall objective

To build capacity in society to develop a multi-disciplinary perspective on sustainabledevelopment so that decision-making fordevelopment incorporates concerns of long-termenvironmental sustainability, justice, equity, andparticipation.


The aim is to provide an understanding ofemerging environmental threats, their potentialImpact and solutions through the differenteducational programmes to a wide variety ofinterest groups.

Specific objectives

• To build knowledge, skills and perspectivesamong professionals on diverse issues such as water conservation, pollutionmanagement, natural resource management,information management and others.

• To build knowledge, skills and perspectivesamong students on issues of environmentand development.

Plans for the year 2008-09 Over the next year, we will consider UniversityAffiliation or attain a Deemed University status -this not only to make courses more valuable forstudents, but also to allow AAGC to tie up withforeign universities and study abroadprogrammes. Similarly, to scale up trainingactivities, we will need to pursue donor-fundedinternational training tie-ups for a variety ofconstituencies and to be able to shareinternational best practices in environmentalmanagement and regulation.

This will be in addition to the normalactivities of short-term training programmes, thecourse for Oslo students and the longer coursefor Indian students.

We will also complete all the activities thatwere not completed the previous year.

MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE

Overall objective

To build the capacities of the media for improvedenvironmental reporting with a holisticperspective.

Specific objectives

• To build a community of environmentalwriters through the Fellowship programme.

• To strengthen the community ofenvironmental writers with regularinformation on issues and resource persons.

• To build capacity and provide informationthrough media workshops.

• To create awareness about keyenvironmental issues.

Plans for the year 2008-09Fellowship programmes: The mediafellowship programme will be continued. Aneffort will be made to make it available to southAsian journalists.

Regular inputs to media on issues andresource persons: The regular email alerts andFeature Service will be continued.

Build capacity and provide informationthrough media workshops: A number ofbriefing workshops are being planned for theyear. Media briefing workshops on air and riverpollution, urban mobility, city water-wastemanagement, water conservation, mining andclimate change. These workshops will beconducted in different parts of the country.

Support other teams to access media forawareness creation: The release of the sixthSOE will be continued in more cities of India toinclude the states of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradeshand Meghalaya. The team will also continue toedit and produce the other CSE publications.

ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION

Overall objective

To increase consciousness and awareness aboutenvironmental issues among students and toprovide them an understanding of the linkagesbetween environment and sustainabledevelopment. It intends to take environmentaleducation beyond nature education.

Specific objectives

• To add to the body of environmentalinformation and knowledge available with theeducators through informational products.

• To build capacities of educators to impartconcepts of sustainable development.

• To strengthen the hands of educators andschool management to give priority to goodenvironmental practices.

• To provide a forum for policymakers,educators and students to exchangeexperiences about environment education.

Plans for the year 2008-09Informational products: Gobar Times andother resource materials can be used morestrategically and efforts are on to strengthen thisarea. We will continue to produce the magazine


every month. At the same time, we will prepare a Business Plan for launching Gobar Times as an independent product. Several issue-based primers are also planned. Activity sheets will also be prepared and put up on the website.

During the year, the manual will be broughtout in other Indian languages. Two languageeditions are already in the pipeline – Kannadaand Hindi. There is also a request from the AbuDhabi government to help them produce amanual for the country.

Two more manuals will be produced – aClimate Change and Global Warming manualand another on Green Habitat.

Capacity building workshops for educators:The aim is to build a network of informededucators and participants in our green schoolprogramme. This year we also plan to buildGreen Schools Learning Centres, which arenodes for training and discussion. These need tobe formalised over time and made into nodes forCSE material and programmes. • Conduct week-long Environment Educators

refresher courses on How to teachenvironment? (2)

• To launch a web training model of GreenSchools Programme based on 2007 Edition

Green School Programme: We need to upscalethe number of schools that are part of the GreenSchools Programme. Currently there are 3500schools across India, of which training conductedfor roughly 2000 schools and others who are intouch with us. This year we are planning for 15training with 50 participants across differentregions of India.

The Green Schools Award programme willbe organised and several interesting events willbe planned as part of this programme.

Influence policy making in the area ofenvironment education: A Green EducatorsSummit will be organised and Gobar Talk will becontinued.

ENVIRONMENT RESOURCES UNIT/KNOWLEDGE PORTAL

Overall objective

The long-term objective is to establish CSE as thestate-of-the-art digital news and knowledgeportal on environment and development issues with focus on South Asia in general andIndia in particular.

Specific objectives

• To make available a central repository ofenvironmental information in India.

• Document and disseminate information onenvironmental issues.

• Build capacity and expand constituencies ofpeople through short-term trainingprogrammes.

Plans for The year 2008-09Environmental portal: The EnvironmentResources Unit plans to extend the environmentportal further as a collaborative platform. This will involve working with other NGO’scolleges, research institutions for identifying the data/information/knowledge available,understand the knowledge gaps, and formalise apractical and easy way of bringing togetheruseful information on the internet. This will alsoinclude development of a wiki- directory ofpeople and institutions working in related fields.Information backgrounds and resources will beprovided on recent environmental issues under“Environment In-depth section”. The team willalso work towards developing survival guides ortool kits for action – information on what peoplecan do and where they can find help.

We are still trying to find an appropriatesolution for providing information in regionallanguages. This will be one of the significantactivities under Phase II of the environmentportal. The team also plans to restructuretraining programmes on informationmanagement and documentation.


The bulk of funds for the organisation came asprogramme grants from donors. CSE received atotal grant income of Rs. 930 lakh, earned Rs.108 lakh from the sale of its products and earnedRs. 147 lakh as interest income. CSE’s core fund(corpus + own fund) stands at Rs. 23.67 crore. Ofthe total of Rs. 108 lakh that CSE generated, Rs.51 lakh is from training activities. Of this, Rs. 31lakh came from the training fee for OsloUniversity students. Therefore, there is a need to

develop strategies to increase the income fromtraining activity.

In terms of expenditure, the maximumexpenditure was on research and advocacy (Rs.225 lakh) followed by expenditure on awarenesscreation and information dissemination activities(Rs. 183 lakh). Over the year, CSE spent Rs. 40lakh on assets, which was mainly for equipmentsuch as computers, LCD projector, communicationsystems and for furniture, fixtures and furnishings.

Financial performance C

ore

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nd

(R

s. C

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0.00

5.00

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15.00

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1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 20081993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007

6216

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EZE (New) Annenberg HBF

UNDP - MOEF DCA Miscellaneous donors

SIDA

6219

5

43

2 5

EZE (New) Annenberg HBF

UNDP - MOEF DCA Miscellaneous donors

SIDA

Chart-1: Donor-wise expenditure

Chart-3: Progress in growth of own funds (2007-08 Rs. 23.89 crore)

Chart-2: Donor-wise grants received

overview 1-2

Documents