The Gangotri-Gaumukh glacier is a significant body of ice in the Indian Himalayas whose loss could cause ecological turmoil, the disruption of livelihoods, and possibly even threaten the continuity of cultural-rebgious practices intertwined with the sacred Ganga River into which its runoff flows. Although there is reason to fear for the Ganga's longevity, the issue of its potential decline is layered with ambiguity, uncertainty, and debate. In this article, I present the science-based discourse on glacial melt, which continues to evolve, along with ethnographicaUy documented perspectives on retreating glaciers and other ecological tiansformations. I demonstiate how Faith in the enduring nature of the Goddess Ganga impacts interpretations of environmental change, regardless of the climate change science, and how ideas about the river's impermanence in Hindu texts can sometimes deter conservation efforts. In doing so I offer a variety of views that enlarge discussions about the causes for and the range of responses to climatic change.Extensive ecological transformations are in progress around the globe and awareness is growing over the degree to which human activities are responsible. In addition to the contributions of climate science, many public debates help to circulate varied understandings of the issues and the challenges ahead. The emerging emphasis on climate stewardship
In this paper, we review the existing social science scholarship focused on hydropower development in the Himalayan region, using an interpretive lens attuned to issues of time and temporality. While the spatial politics of Himalayan hydropower are well examined in the literature, an explicit examination of temporal politics is lacking. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework organized around the heuristic of timescapes, highlighting temporal themes implicit in the existing literature. In three sections, we explore the temporal politics of anticipation that shape hydropower dreams, the intersecting temporalities and rhythms that modulate the life cycles of hydropower projects, and the ways that geological and hydrological time affect both hydropower development and broader Himalayan futures. Along the way, we pose a series of questions useful for framing future research given the significant climatic, geophysical, and sociopolitical changes underway in the Himalayan bioregion, calling for greater analytical attention to time, temporality, and temporal ethics in future studies of hydropower in the Himalayas and beyond.
The historical water catchments of India's capital city were foundational to the flourishing of settlements that spanned centuries. Today, those water features are held up as 'wise' models of water stewardship for the people who criticise the Indian government's water management shortcomings. This article investigates historical imaginations of infrastructures past with attention to how their example leads to demands for 'smart(er)' water management regimes. It also shows how efforts to revive past water catchments can make meaningful contributions to water stewardship, but that they still risk perpetuating the water access inequalities and middle-class priorities that are identified in a growing body of scholarship on India's water politics. Since the existing scholarship predominantly focuses on exploitative rural-to-urban and inter-urban water flows, this text argues that water politics-including political ecologies of water-are also poignantly revealed in the study of seemingly proactive solutions such as the expansion of urban water catchments.
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