News & Events

Trees of Bhuj: Using big data to boost urban biodiversity and build a greener, smarter city | India Water Portal

In the semi-arid landscape of Bhuj, Gujarat, something quietly remarkable is taking root—literally. While cities across India grapple with heat islands and vanishing green cover, Bhuj is building its climate resilience one tree at a time, powered by data, community action, and a deep respect for biodiversity.

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When water becomes a number: The hidden politics of TDS and the rise of RO markets in Bhuj | India Water Portal

In Bhuj, Gujarat, rising RO purifier use reflects a shift from taste-based trust to TDS numbers, turning water quality into a private concern and moving accountability away from the state.

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Trees of Bhuj: Book detailing tree biodiversity in Kutch’s capital launched | DownToEarth

A book titled Trees of Bhuj was launched on March 26, detailing the tree biodiversity of the capital city of Kutch. The latter is the largest district in the country. The authors of the book are Pankaj Joshi, botanist and researcher, and Ekta Joshi, faculty, Lalan College, Bhuj-Kutch. A web portal (treesofbhuj.in) was also launched the same day, providing detailed information on all the trees documented in the book.

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Bhuj’s Hamirsar on Monuments Watch list | Ahmedabad Mirror

Bhuj City’s historic Hamirsar lake and part of the larger water system in the city have been included in the 2025 World Monument Watch. This list spotlights important heritage sites worldwide facing urgent preservation challenges.

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Bhuj historic water systems in Gujarat figures in 2025 World Monuments Watch | Indian Express

World Monuments Fund (WMF) has selected Bhuj historic water systems in Gujarat’s Kutch district to be among the list of 25 sites across the world for this year’s World Monuments Watch, highlighting the need for its immediate conservation.

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2025 Watch List : Bhuj Historic Water Systems, India | World Monument Fund

The 2025 World Monuments Watch aims to increase awareness of Bhuj’s historic water systems and support rehabilitation efforts. Ingenious rainwater collection systems have fallen out of use in favour of modern infrastructure—but as India's water crisis deepens, revitalising this heritage technology could foster resource security.

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Outdated norms 'depriving poor' of housing benefits under 2003 Gujarat Govt GR | Counterview

As per the Housing for All Plan of Action (HFAPoA) of Bhuj, prepared under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) in 2018, out of a total of 13,978 households residing in slums, 83 percent (approximately 11,631) houses were owned and were sited on public land.

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PMAY paradox: Policy gap leaves Bhuj's poor homeless | India Water Portal

As per the Housing for All Plan of Action of Bhuj, prepared under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna in 2018, out of a total of 13,978 households residing in slums in Bhuj, 83 percent houses were owned and were sited on public land.

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His application for residential plot rejected, vegetable vendor requests Gujarat CM to hike income criterion | The Indian Express

Karshan Vaghela, a vegetable and fruit vendor from a slum in Kutch district’s Bhuj town, has complained to the Gujarat chief minister’s office that the district collector has rejected his application for a plot of government land as his annual income exceeded the criterion fixed two decades ago.

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Concerned citizens' letter: Urgently restore, protect historic lakes of water stressed Bhuj | Counterview

Kachchh, a semi-arid district in western Gujarat, is a highly water-distressed area. As per the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) report published in 2022, groundwater has depleted by 12.43 meters between 2011 and 2020. The report further states that Kutch is one of three districts after Panchmahal and Sabarkantha in Gujarat where groundwater is depleting at the rate of over one meter annually due to various reasons such as the establishment of industrial setups, development by ignoring water reservoirs, and water channels, etc.

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Bhuj citizens seek restoration of Hamirsar and other water bodies | India Water Portal

Hamirsar is a 450-year-old artificial lake that bears the name of Rao Hamir, the founder of Bhuj and Rao Khengarji I's father, who founded the Kutchi Jadeja dynasty. In order to meet the needs of Bhuj, which was also designated as the capital in 1549, this area in the salinized and arid Kutch was developed over a number of decades, and canals and tunnels were built to combine water from three river systems and recharge the aquifers.

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Whither Bhuj heritage site Hamirsar's water system, wonder Kutch citizens, experts | Counterview

Several environmental activists, social workers and academics, most of them belonging to the arid Kutch district of Gujarat, have sought Gujarat authorities’ urgent intervention to “notify, protect, restore and rejuvenate” lakes of the historic Bhuj city, threatening legal action in case they fail to do it.

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Slum land rights: A necessity for success of PMAY | India Water Portal

Informal housing caters to over one-third of the population in our cities, who cannot afford formal housing. Cities are known as engines of economy and this economy consists of over 90 per cent informal sector workers. However, housing requirements for these people have never got utmost priority by governments, post-independence.

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Middle-class bag most benefits: Lack of land titles, funds leave slum dwellers ‘homeless’ under PMAY in Gujarat | Indian Express

Around 94,000 or 48 per cent of the 1.97 lakh families living in slum pockets in the towns of Gujarat want to construct houses on their own with state assistance under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme’s beneficiary-led construction (BLC) component but have failed to do so largely due to the land ownership issues, a recent study has found.

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PMAY Fails To Help Gujarat Slum Dwellers | Reality

A new study on the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) has said that in Gujarat, no progress has been made towards tenure regularisation, a key requirement for providing housing to the state’s slum dwellers.

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Prime Minister's 'affordable' housing policy fails to help Gujarat slum dwellers: Study | Counterview

The study, carried out by the non-profit Homes in the City (HIC), which is based in Bhuj, district headquarter of Kutch that saw a devastating earthquake in 2001, says, the failure to provide affordable housing is there despite the fact that there has been “significant demand” in all the 83 out of 153 Gujarat municipalities studied by experts involved in the study.

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Bhuj cattle rearers face the heat of lockdown | India Water Portal

At Bhuj, the cattle rearers were a part of the city’s economy from the pre-independence era and were mostly employed by the king or mahajans. They resided on the land where they took up rearing activity. Post-independence, these lands came under government control but the cattle rearers continued to dwell on it.

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A bridge not too far | Vikalp Sangam

Do we ever pause to think how a city really works? How easy or difficult is it to understand and access government schemes, especially for the poor? How can spaces be created for dialogue between the government and marginalised sections of urban society, such as slum dwellers?

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Kutch's Water Champions In The Making | HUFFPOST

Kutch's arid history is well known. It is associated with water scarcity and frequent droughts. Yet, for more than 500 years, Bhuj grew as an urban centre owing to its traditional water resource management system based on geo-hydrological knowledge. Unfortunately with time, as centralised systems became more popular, indigenous knowledge was gradually lost. The result is that the city is increasingly depending on external sources like Narmada's waters or borewells for its water supply.

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