On the days when it is calm, the Brahmaputra resembles an impossibly wide silvery sheet of water, rippling mile after mile through the northeast Indian state of Assam. But when it rages, the world’s fourth-largest river by volume of discharge, is a savage horror, swallowing up entire islands, submerging villages, and wreaking havoc along its…
By the Brahmaputra (Vol: 34) C-NES Newsletter (For the Quarter April – June 2016) Editorial By the Brahmaputra Vulnerability and a time of terror In the space of a few dramatic weeks, so much has changed in our one and extremely vulnerable world– or seems to have. But has it, really? It just seems so…
NE Blood Bank at Delhi Message from Robin Hibu IPS , IGP (Nodal Officer for North East People, Delhi) BLOOD BANK for people from North East India in Delhi & NCR - The NE States and Delhi Student Unions have agreed to donate blood.Our aim is to build the largest blood bank of Delhi &…
It had been raining all morning but Debika Mikum was still waiting. About a dozen women stood with her, huddled under their umbrellas. Chacha had seen them from afar. He deftly brought the starboard parallel to the slippery bank, as Sanjay Pegu, the wiry deckhand, flung the anchor ashore. From the other end of the…
Journalist Papri Sri Raman, got a UNHCR -C-NES media fellowship to conduct a study on Sri Lankan refugees in 2008. She had also visited the Jorhat Boat Clinic some time later. Her new book, the Song of India, is a historical fiction, set in the time frame of World War II and the great Hump…
By the Brahmaputra (Vol: 33) C-NES Newsletter(For the Quarter January – March 2016)Editorial By the Brahmaputra And now for Jivika, Swasthya, XikhyaAs Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched, Sarbananda Sonowal took the oath of office as Chief Minister of Assam with his cabinet colleagues before an enthusiastic crowd which braved sweltering temperatures to witness the new…
Given rising demands for water and power in the Brahmaputra basin, as well as the emergence of controversial dam-building activities and water diversion plans, CNA sought to examine the equities and drivers fueling water insecurity in the region. After conducting research in China, India, and Bangladesh, CNA offers recommendations for key stakeholders to consider at…
On A rainy September day in 2012, 21-year-old Chimpi Bora faced the prospect of going into labour at home. The floods had cut all communication to her flood-ravaged home in Jorhat district’s (upper Assam) Bhimpara island on the Brahmaputra. Her husband called an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), local community workers, who connected with the…
“Good to listen to what you are doing- your challenges, how you overcome them, what you want to do. We have to look at ourselves and how we look at C-NES the next 15 years.” These were the opening remarks of Sanjoy Hazarika,Managing Trustee C-NES in his welcome address at the three day C-NES Annual…
In 1985, I had just come back to Delhi after a stint at the New York Times main office. One of the first dispatches I reported was India’s announcement that it would build a fence to stop illegal migration from Bangladesh. The Assam agreement on illegal migration and the state’s development had been signed earlier…