DOCUSHOP Resources for the Month: June

...a selected list of print and film resources!

MARKING ENVIRONMENT DAY
BOOKS

The Little Green Book: A Directory of Environmental Opportunities, with Special Reference to Delhi
By Rajesh Rahul & Sunita Rao (Ed.), published 1995 (2nd edition)
Access Contribution: 30/-
This little resource book is the outcome of the need many of us felt, for a comprehensive guide to the environment-related opportunities, activities, facilities, and resources available in Delhi. Such a need has been repeatedly expressed by students and young people looking for opportunities to become involved in the environmental movement.

Environmental Aspects of the Sardar Sarovar Project
By Ashish Kothari and Rahul N. Ram, published 1994
Access Contribution: Rs. 20/-
The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), the largest and most expensive river valley project ever initiated in India, is often described by its proponents as Gujarat’s lifeline. However, it’s critics feel that it may be one of India’s largest planned ecological disasters. In this book, environmental aspects of the SSP are discussed here in terms accessible to the lay reader: the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment of the project and the lack thereof; the way in which conditional environmental clearance was granted to the SSP and how that clearance has effectively lapsed; the possible environmental impacts of the SSP; and whether the SSP can be justified at all.

The environmental impacts are described such that basic ideas about environmental impacts of dams and irrigation projects are clearly spelt out, therefore setting up a framework within which projects other than SSP can also be examined.

Forest Revival and Water Harvesting : Community Based Conservation at Bhaonta-Kolyala, Rajasthan, India (Community Based Conservation in South Asia: Case Study No. 2)
By Swati Shresth with Shridhar Devidas , Published 2001
Access Contribution: Rs. 60/-
This study is an attempt to undersand the natural resource conservation and management efforts of two villages, Bhaonta-Kolyala, in approximately 600 ha of forest area in the upper catchment of a recently revived rivulet, Arvari. The Arvari catchment is located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan in western India. The resident communities and Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) support the conservation initiative. This effort is not only indicative of the potential of local institutions in protecting natural resources but also provides an example of the role NGOs can play in strengthening communities and conservation initiatives.

Coastal Conservation through Enterprise at Rekawa Lagoon, Sri Lanka (Community Based Conservation in South Asia: Case Study No. 5)
By S.U.K. Ekaratne & Others, Published 2000
Access Contribution: Rs. 60/-
Rekawa’s major resources include its villagers, a beach environment with its associated biological resources, the lagoon, its water supply and fishery resources, mangroves and contiguous scrub forest with its wildlife, agricultural and the aesthetic resources associated with these habitats.

Rekawa is situated in the coastal plain of Sri Lanka. Some 6,000 years ago, the3 Rekawa lagoon area was submerged under water (TEAMS, 1994). Today, it is located on the lowest peneplain in Sri Lanka, gently sloping from an inland elevation of 300 metres to sea level. Rekawa lagoon itself is shallow its depth averaging 1.4 metres. The widest point is approximately 2.5 km (Jayakody and Jayasinghe, 1992).  The surrounding area is defined by hills, ridges and outcroppings of less than 50 metres above sea level. Scattered along this coastal area are granite outcroppings, though most of the land forms an undulating coastal plain (Ganewatta et al, 1995).

Does Community-Based Conseration Make Economic Sense? Lessons from India (Community Based Conservation in South Asia: Theme Paper No. 8)
By Sushil Saigal , Published 2000
Access Contribution: Rs. 60/-
There has been an increasing world-wide interest in community-based wildlife/forest conservation and management during the last few years. Many countries are initiating or strengthening community wildlife/forestry programmes and international funding agencies are increasingly advocating and supporting it. There are three main reasons for this shift towards community-based approaches. Firstly, there is a growing realization that long-term conservation or development of wildlife/eco-system resources is not possible without active involvement of communities living in and around forests. Secondly, there is a greater awareness among planners, administrator, academics and conservationists of the importance of wildlife/ecosystems in the material, cultural and spiritual life of these communities.  Lastly, forests and other ecosystem are being increasingly seen as key elements in rural development efforts in most countries.

Land, Water, Forests, Whose access? Whose control? Bihar Padyatra Diary (Hindi)
By Kriti Team, Published 2001
Access Contribution: Rs.25/-
The book is related to history of Satyagraha in Madya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh and showing to experience of Payatra. Available in hindi version.

The Citizen’s Guide for Participating in Environmental decision making
By Ritwick Dutta (Series ed.) , Published 2006
Contribution: Rs. 100/-
The Citizen’s Guide is the first in the “Environmental Democracy Series”: a series of publication planned on critical environmental issues. This is being jointly researched by the Environmental Democracy Programme of HESCO and Lawyers Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE). The aim of this series is to provide information, which equips communities, citizens and NGO’s among others in securing justice on environmental issues. Prepared by lawyers and activists, the aim of the citizen’s guide is to simplify complex laws in a manner in which the target group is able to make the most use of it and access institutional of justice.

Stakeholder Participation in Environmental Governance: Corporate Social Responsibiity
By Lead India (Compiled), Published 2006
Contribution: Rs. 100/-
This booklet is a collection of four case studies prepared for the GTS.  Participants form across the world met for 10 days to explore and work on topics related to environmental governance, water governance and forest governance.  Given the challenges of the Indian economy, it is hoped that the case studies presented will help guide decision-makers within the industry and the government.

Local Environmental Governance in India: Case Studies
By Lead India (Compiled), Published 2007
Contribution: Rs. 50/-
This publication is a compilation of case studies presented at the National Consultation on “Local Environmental Governance in India”: Setting the Agenda” held in New Delhi, India on the 15th and 16thMarch 2007.

Privatization of Rivers in India
By Arun Kumar Singh, Published 2004
Contribution: Rs. 100/-
The water sector, driven by the logic of neo-liberal paradigm, is increasingly under the domain of the market forces. The World Water Council- made up of the World Bank, the water TNCs and development agencies of the North- through its Water Vision Statement posits a paradigm shift from water as a "common good" to a "tradable" commodity. As a natural corollary to this, the water TNCs directly or indirectly, are plotting to control the world's dwindling water and natural resources by reshaping national policies, reframing national laws and changing institutional structures in Third World countries, to ensure their monopoly over the water market. Its use, supply and distribution is determined by the market principle of profit perpetuate, without question, the inequality in the access to water. This inequality, inherent in logic of the water market, is a curtailment of human rights of a large majority of the people in the world. This approach is in line with the "Second Generation" economic reforms characterized by a shift from trade in goods, to trade in services in compliance with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) within the WTO regime.

Privatization as a solution to the water crisis proposes a model of water management structure that relinquishes all control over water resources to the domain of the market forces and thus marginalizes the role of the state and the rights of communities. The institutionalization of this type of model will inevitably lead to the cartelization of India 's fresh water resources, ecological devastation and social conflicts.

Ensuring a Safe Environment: Laws Against Pollution
By P.D. Mathew & P.M. Bakshi, Published 1995 (Third reprint)
Contribution: Rs. 10/-
The past two decades have seen all over the world, an increased concern for the purity of the environment. Witnessed also was a rapid and extensive legislative activity to check anything that pollutes the environment. Many are the noteworthy judicial decisions that touched upon the various aspects of environment pollution. All these developments, worldwide as they are, have found their echo in India too.

A law to maintain the purity of land, water and air and other elements of nature is as old as history in India. The Smritis (ancient legal literature) of India have specific provisions to ensure the purity of water.

Documentary Films

By Sanjay Kak (85 min, English& Hindi, DVD)
Contribution: Rs. 500/-
From being a fight over the fate of a river valley, the struggle against big dams in the Narmada valley has begun to raise doubts about an entire political system. What is at issue now is the very nature of India’s democracy. Who owns this land? Who owns its rivers? Its forests?  Its fish?

Marubhumi                                                                                                                                                                 By Amar Kanwar  (52 min, Hindi , with English Subtitles, DVD), 1996                                      Contribution: Rs. 500/-
Marubhumi is a documentary about the story of water in Rajasthan, India and offers glimpses of history, policies and the development of water harvesting in ancient and modern Jodhpur (Marwar)

A Narmada Diary   (available DVD & CD Films in Hindi)
By Simantini Dhuru & Anand Patwardhan  (60 min, Hindi , DVD), 1995                                   Contribution: Individual Rs. 400/-  Institutional Rs. 1200/-
Development for whom, sacrifice by whom? How much benefit and at what cost? For the last decade the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement) has asked basic questions of a government determined to build the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Northern India.

Jardhar Diary
By Krishnendu Bose  (29 min, English, DVD), 2002
Contribution: Rs. 500/-
This film is a personal journey into an area, which is alive with consciousness and commitment to save their natural resources. We meet men and women who are ready to stake their lives to protect and defend what they think is their own. This is story of Jardhar, in the hills of the Garhwal Himalayas. The villagers of Jardhar have revived their forests, are fighting limestone mining on their hill slopes, staving off power lines, which will decimate their rich Pine and Sal cover and reclaiming traditional seeds and putting it back into circulation. Through the voices of the villagers and an inspired leadership, many of them a chip from the old Chipko block, we travel through the area. And get to know the revolution which is sometimes covert and sometimes out in the streets.
Where is My Home?
Contribution: Rs. 500/-
In recent years, the sea levels have been rising in the Sunderbans in West Bengal. But in the last few, the intensity has grown. Oceanographers have measured a rise of about 3 mm as against the global average of 2mm.  Lohachaura and Suparibhanga, two islands in the delta have been permanently lost to these rising waves. Many scientists have located this in the climate change process, which is threatening to sweep the Earth. They predict 100,000 people in these parts, affected over the next 15 years.
Our story is about Anjona, this 13-year-old girl, who defines the human face of this environmental disaster in the making. She and her family were forced to leave here home in the island of Ghoramara, as it was sinking. Her new home in the neighboring Sagar Island, is also being rampaged by the pounding Bay of Bengal. Her future is uncertain. She is another environmental migrant, like the thousands before her, who is vulnerable and powerless against the fury of the sea.
Apna Jungle Apni Kahani
By Krishnendu Bose (33 min, Hindi, DVD), 2001
Contribution: Rs. 500/-

This film travels through the parts of Eastern Rajasthan, NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh have worked in. Going beyond the water success story, it captures the forest conservation aspects of the movement which have been hitherto ignored. The Film documents 5 case studies bringing out the various facets of the empowerment process of the communities which has helped them in protecting their forests. The narrators of the film are the villagers who have lived through the experience of the process of empowerment and conservation. The script was written with the active collaboration of the villagers. The leitmotif of the film is a Gram Sabha meeting in progress, which is the thread which binds the stories together. This meeting throws up the power of the communities in the process of mapping their development plans.

The Miracle Water Village
By Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh  (13 min/4.3, DVD)
Contribution: Rs. 350/-

The film focuses lauds the efforts of the villagers of Hilware Bazar for recharging their village’s groundwater reserves. The village received the National Water Award and is also being studied by the World Water Forum. The film explores the techniques employed explaining how these methods can be replicated by other regions facing water shortages.

Changing Climates: The Politics (English and Hindi)
By CSE (27 min,English, VCD)
Contribution: Rs. 750/-
From the groundbreaking Rio Earth Summit in 1992, to the breakdown of the international climate negotiations in The Hague in 2000, politicians have struggled to find agreement on firstly, whether the world is warming, and secondly, a global consensus for action. Today, with international agreement seemingly as far away as ever, Earth Report tracks the political ups and downs of what is arguably the world’s greatest problem.

A Dam Old Story
By Tarini Manchanda  (26 mins., English Subtitled,  DVD), 2010
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00
The film focuses lauds the efforts of the villagers of Hilware Bazar for recharging their village’s groundwater reserves. The village received the National Water Award and is also being studied by the World Water Forum. The film explores the techniques employed explaining how these methods can be replicated by other regions facing water shortages.

Chilika Bank$ - Stories from India’s Largest Coastal Lak 1970-2007
By Akansha Joshi  60 mins, English), 2008
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00

The film looks at the times, when there was no export bazaar to the time when there may be no lake, from the time fisher folk led a hardworking yet comfortable lives to the time where they have to fight for their survival.

Earth Witness: Reflections on the Times & The Timeless
By Akansha Joshi  (60 mins, English), 2011
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00
Four common people - a teacher, a farmer, a shepherd, a father find themselves on the front line of the earth's biggest, most complexes crisis: climate changes that affect their day to day life. Living in diverse climatic regions - the mountains of Nagaland, the grass lands of Kutch, the Gangetic delta and the forests of Central India - they use this challenge as a part of their art with nature. Their lives journey through the dark labyrinths of the multidimensional crisis, reflecting stories of our times - of trees, mining, monkeys, logging, rivers, seeds, waterfalls, flowers - and the spirit of the timeless.

Reviving Faith – A Himalayan Journey… in Search of the Lost Tradition of Conservation
By Rishu Nigam  (60 mins, English), 2008
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00
The woods of Anusuya Devi in Uttarakhand remain untouched by human influence. The film ‘Reviving Faith’ takes its viewers into the sacred groves of the Himalayas that are still alive because of the faith of its people. It traces the struggles of the Himalayan people to save their forests from being plundered. What remains of this faith today? The Himalayas are crumbling under the pressure of countless development projects. On the one hand, they are bearing the assault of human abuse; on the other they are dealing with an invisible adversary called climate change. Reviving faith raises a critical question- can the modern world restore the faith that conserved nature, before it gets too late?  

Village of Dust, City of Water
By  Sanjay Barnela  (30 mins, English), 2006
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00
A film that negotiates the rough terrain of water use and misuse across India. -Antelope Award for the Best Environment Film at the Wildlife Asia film Festival, Singapore, March 2007. -A ‘special mention’ by the Jury at the “Verviers, au film de l’eau” Film Festival, Belgium, 13 -16 March 2008

Water Warriors
By Nutan Manmohan  (60 mins, English), 2008
Contribution: Individual Rs.400.00, Institutional Rs. 700.00
“Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you don’t have water …. Don't sit this one out. Do something.” - Carl Sagan. This 2 part film series profiles ‘water warriors’ who have launched a series of innovations to combat water stress.

A Valley refuses to die
By K.P Sasi (51 min, English, DVD), 1988-90
Contribution: Rs. 500/-
A documentary on the social and environmental issues caused by the Narmada dams and the subsequent people’s movement of the adivasis and farmers in the Narmada valley.

MARKING WORLD REFUGEE DAY!
Refugees and the Law
By Ragini Trakroo Zutshi (Ed.)
Contribution: Rs. 700/-
This book looks at refugee law, but not within the limits, it has traditionally been confined to. Its aim is to sensitise lawyers and practitioners all over the country, concerned with humanitarian issues, to the increasing need for a broader conceptual framework-one that can make, if only marginally, a little more sense of the seemingly chaotic ground realities, in all their complexity, and which also factors in the impact of policy on law.  

A conventional refugee is a person who is outside her country because she reasonably believes that her civil or political status puts her at risk of inviting serious harm in her country and that her own government cannot or will not protect her. The emphasis is on the element of genuine risk or fear. The definition of a refugee, which was formulated in the 1951 Convention and modified in the 1967 Protocol, has evolved in practice. Around half the world’s refugees are children. In conflict situation, children are increasingly becoming not only accidental victims of refugee influxes but also deliberate target. On account of their dependence, vulnerability and development needs, children require special attention and protection.
While the book mainly focuses on the foundation and framework of international refugee law, it analyses in some details the domestic legal framework available to bring this special group within its ambit. The aim is to facilitate the efforts of those who are engaged in the advocacy of the rights of refugees and issues relating to their protection.

Nowhere To Run… Plight of Burmese Refugees Mizoram
By HRLN (21.05 min, English, DVD), 2004
Contribution: Rs. 250/-
This film tells about the plight of Burmese refugees living in the North-Eastern state of Mizoram.

In Search of My Home
By Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas (30 min, Hindi, DVD), 2010
Contribution: Rs. 250/-
In the world’s largest democracy live thousands of men, women and children with lost homes and forgotten names. Sheltering one of the largest refugee populations in the world, India still lacks a comprehensive domestic refugee law that could guarantee them their basic human needs and a life of dignity. In Search of My Home is a journey with a Burmese and an Afghan family, as it explores the complexities in their everyday battle for survival. Weaving their emotional stories of hope and despair, love and loss, the film uses live-action, photography, music and text narratives to tell a story that is absent from India’s collective conscience. This film was made by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas as part of the Info change Media Fellowships 2009.

This Prison Where I Live
By Rex Bloomstein; Michael Mittermeier & Zarganar (90 min, English, DVD), 2010

This is a film about two comedians. Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, is Burma’s greatest living comic. Relentlessly victmised by the Burmese military junta, he is now in prison. Michael Mittermeier, in stark contrast, is free to practice his art of humour and provocation as one of Germany’s leading stand up comedians. The genesis of this film begins in 2007, when Zarganar agreed to be interviewed by the British documentary filmmaker, Rex Bloomstein, despite being banned from all forms of artistic activity and talking to foreign media. Over two days Bloomstein and his team interviewed Zarganar in depth in his flat, showed the cinemas that are prevented from screening his films, the bookstalls not allowed to sell his plays or poetry, and the makeshift TV studio where his fellow comedians rehearse on a stage that he himself is forbidden to tread. Footage which has never been seen or broadcast before. Hearing of Zarganar’s fate and seeing the footage, Michael Mittemeier joined Rex Bloomstein in make a film about this man who has paid such a price for speaking out against the regime. This Prison Where I Live is a feature documentary and is the story of Michael’s exploration into the personality, the motivation and the talent of the man who describes himself as the ‘loudspeaker’ for his people.

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DOCUSHOP
c/o Kriti team
S-35 Tara Apartments, Alaknanda, New Delhi 110019
011-26033088/ 26027845
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Kriti team - supporting grassroots groups, movements and organisations 
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1999-2013





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