Dinesh Kumar Mishra

March 2011 - Cover
The people vs the environment
Officials in India keep reviving the dead debate on floods – to the detriment of local communities and the national exchequer.

March 2009 - Special Report
The legends of Kosi
Key lessons for dealing with the vagaries of the Kosi’s annual cycle are to be found in the myths and folklore of the North Indian plain.

August 2007 - Analysis
Bihar’s embanking mindset
The new administration in Patna is finally taking flood preparedness seriously, but its thinking is still disastrously narrow-sighted

December 2008 - Analysis
Finger in the dike
While a timetable has now been announced for plugging the embankment breach on the Kosi, local communities are left to wonder – how much will it help?

April 2001 -
Refugees of the Kosi
Four decades ago, going against scientific wisdom, the dam builders of India decided to construct embankments on the Kosi river in north Bihar. This is the untold story of the misery of this decision made by faceless technocrats and unthinking politicians. The British had in 1855 embanked the river Damodar in Bengal as an experiment in flood control. They were to regret the consequences. In the following years, the flood levels rose and the water breached the embankments at many points. Compounding matters, the embankments impeded the natural drainage channels of rainwater, leading to extensive waterlogging that both reduced the arable and abetted epidemics. This experience was sufficient to dissuade the British from embanking other flood-prone rivers.

January 1999 - Cover
Above the Danger Mark
It is five months since the monsoon ended, but parts of northern Bihar are still under water. The embankments that are supposed to control floods, trap the water instead. When the next rains arrive in June, the rivers will overflow again and the annual ritual of calling for a high dam on the Kosi River in Nepal will begin once more.

People versus wildlife 17 May 2013
By Nirmal Ghosh
	Reassessing wildlife conservation policies in India.

After the flood 7 May 2013
By Danial Shah
	The new realities of life for villagers in Hunza Valley who lost their homes and lands to a natural lake following a 2010...

Disappearing foods 25 April 2013

	A collection of recipes that are fading from the Southasian palette.

Eat, drink, write 23 April 2013
By Suman Bolar
	A food writer dishes on the ins and outs of her profession.

Brideprice 22 April 2013
By Manik Bandopadhyay
	A new translation of Manik Bandopadhyay's ‘Namuna’ by Madhusree Mukerjee.

Among the believers 19 April 2013
By Abhishek Choudhary
	An account from Varanasi, where bhang and thandai struggle to survive the onslaught of LSD and Coca-Cola.

Behind the crystals 18 April 2013
By Rituparna Banerjee
	Capturing the lives of Marakkanam’s salt pan workers

In search of food sovereignty 17 April 2013
By K Sandeep
	Shifting the debate on the Public Distribution System.

Missing connections 8 April 2013
By Sarandha
	Girja Kumar’s book on the Indus and the cultures tied to it obscures a tremendous wealth of interconnected histories and...

No place for picnics 4 April 2013
By Freny Manecksha
	Kashmiri women tell their stories of the conflict.

'I bowled left-arm chinaman' 28 March 2013
By Jahnavi Barua
	Shehan Karunatilaka speaks about winning awards, spin bowling, italics in fiction, and much more.

Articles by Dinesh Kumar Mishra