The Third Pole Podcast

After six years of direct rule from New Delhi, a new administration came to power in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in October 2024. In a region long marked by political instability and military conflict, the new government faces many challenges. The environment is undoubtably one of these, given the region’s high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.With glaciers melting, rivers becoming increasingly polluted, wetlands shrinking and rampant urbanisation, Kashmir’s ecosystems are strained and local communities under threat. Despite this, the manifestos of parties competing in last year’s election revealed a lack of focus on such issues. In our fourth episode of The Third Pole Podcast, Srinagar-based journalist Auqib Javeed guides listeners through the region’s worsening environmental challenges. He highlights pressures from unregulated tourism and large infrastructure projects, explaining how these changes could have far-reaching impacts across South Asia.Joining him is Omair Ahmad, Dialogue Earth’s former South Asia managing editor and greatly missed host of this podcast. Having covered Kashmir for much of his career, he explains how years of conflict, political instability, limited local powers and weak governance have compounded its environmental problems. He strikes a note of hope for the future though. Things can turn around, and key to this is empowering local players to implement solutions.GUESTSAuqib Javeed, independent journalistOmair Ahmad, former South Asia managing editor, Dialogue EarthCREDITSHost: Shalinee KumariProducer: Shalinee KumariAudio edit and sound design: Sync Sound SabhaRecording studio: Pindrop MediaArtwork: Sana NasirThanks to: Lizi Hesling, Nanaui Amoros Silva, Chaia Dechen, Isa Lim, Sam GelderMUSIC“Alarm Cycle” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: CC BY NC“Borough” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: ⁠CC BY NCLICENCEThis podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. To find out more visit: https://dialogue.earth/en/republishing/Visit our website for more podcasts: https://dialogue.earth/en/podcasts/

Northern Pakistan’s remote mountain communities are a rich reservoir of diverse cultures. But some of the languages in these regions – such as Yidgha and Dameli – are only spoken by a few thousand people. This makes the languages vulnerable, especially in the face of climate disasters like floods and droughts. With livelihoods under threat, many members of these communities are forced to migrate to other regions in search of a better life. This distance erodes the vitality of their mother tongue, as does the pressure to learn and use other, economically dominant languages. In our third episode of The Third Pole Podcast, journalist Fawad Ali explains how he developed this topic into an investigative piece for Dialogue Earth. He also discusses the resulting article’s impact so far, and how to preserve the mountain cultures of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.Joining him is Dialogue Earth’s Pakistan editor, Farahanaz Zahidi, who delves deeper into the problem. She explores the intersection of gender and climate change, calling for mountain communities to be more involved in adaptation policies and planning. GUESTSFawad Ali, independent journalistFarahnaz Zahidi Moazzam, Pakistan editor, Dialogue EarthCREDITSHosts: Shalinee Kumari, Omair AhmadProducer: Shalinee KumariAudio edit and sound design: Sync Sound SabhaRecording studios: ⁠Pindrop Media⁠, PodspotArtwork: ⁠Sana Nasir⁠Thanks to: Lizi Hesling, Nanaui Amoros Silva, Chaia Dechen, Georgie CampbellMUSIC“Alarm Cycle” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: CC BY NC“Borough” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: ⁠CC BY NCLICENCEThis podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. To find out more visit: https://dialogue.earth/en/republishing/Visit our website for more podcasts: https://dialogue.earth/en/podcasts/

In the face of increasingly erratic weather patterns and growing incidences of extreme weather, precise and timely forecasting can protect lives, property and infrastructure. While traditional forecasting methods continue to be used, scientists are exploring how artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) could improve their speed and accuracy. Globally, there’s a great deal of financial excitement around these technologies, but India finds itself at a more nascent stage. In 2023, the country announced a new virtual centre to develop AI/ML techniques for weather predictions. But a massive challenge awaits: the lack of credible data.Robust and voluminous data is at the core of AI/ML models. India lacks this, despite being no stranger to frequent weather-related disasters like heatwaves, floods and cyclones. Data paucity is even more critical for the Himalayan region, which is also particularly vulnerable to climate-related disasters. Having worked with environmental data for more than 20 years – and knowing the challenges involved – journalist Nidhi Jamwal was keen to gain a deeper understanding of India’s AI weather forecasting journey. Writing for Dialogue Earth last year, she consulted various experts to explore the complexities of this topic and how the country’s data gap might be bridged.In this second episode of The Third Pole Podcast, Jamwal reveals that a lack of data is not the only problem. The availability of existing data, which is often very hard to obtain from the various agencies that gather it, is also a central issue. Joining Jamwal is Amitabha Bagchi. A professor of computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Bagchi gets down to the nitty-gritty of how AI/ML models work. He also introduces the India Stack, which might offer an innovative solution to many of the country’s data woes. GUESTSNidhi Jamwal, independent journalistAmitabha Bagchi, senior research associate, Centre for Policy ResearchCREDITSHosts: Shalinee Kumari, Omair AhmadProducer: Shalinee KumariAudio edit and sound design: Gaurav Krishna, Dead End Right StudiosRecording studio: Pindrop MediaArtwork: Sana NasirThanks to: Lizi Hesling, Nanaui Amoros Silva, Chaia Dechen, Georgie CampbellMUSIC“Alarm Cycle” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: CC BY NC“Borough” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: ⁠CC BY NCLICENCEThis podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. To find out more visit: https://dialogue.earth/en/republishing/Visit our website for more podcasts: https://dialogue.earth/en/podcasts/

The Ganga has nurtured civilisations in its basin for centuries, and continues to provide water for drinking and agriculture today. About 40% of India’s population live in the basin. Although the river’s purity is at the core of its huge religious importance in Hinduism, it is also one of India’s most polluted rivers. A concoction of untreated sewage and industrial waste continues to be pumped into its waters.The river’s significance is such that tackling this pollution has been a government focus since 1985, when the Ganga Action Plan was launched. Successive governments have since expanded and attempted to improve the approach, but with little success. The latest attempt to clean the river is the Namami Gange Programme, launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, soon after he came to power.A decade on, the government claims the project and its technology-first approach have succeeded where previous efforts had not. To investigate this claim, journalist Monika Mondal visited the sacred city of Varanasi (Benares), to assess the waters of the Ganga and two of its tributaries, the Varuna and Assi. She talked to local people and experts and visited the sewage treatment plants bearing most of the burden of the clean-up, publishing her findings in the Third Pole (now Dialogue Earth) in September 2023. In this podcast, Mondal revisits her story, joining The Third Pole team to take a behind-the-scenes look at the work she did. With her is researcher Debarshee Dasgupta, who shares his insights on this most recent effort to clean the Ganga, and the complex structural challenges it faces.GUESTSMonika Mondal, independent journalistDebarshee Dasgupta, senior research associate, Centre for Policy ResearchCREDITSHosts: Shalinee Kumari, Omair AhmadProducer: Shalinee KumariAudio edit and sound design: Sync Sound SabhaRecording studio: Pindrop MediaArtwork: Sana NasirThanks to: Lizi Hesling, Nanaui Amoros Silva, Chaia Dechen, Georgie CampbellMUSIC“Alarm Cycle” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: CC BY NC“Borough” by Blue Dot Sessions, licence: ⁠CC BY NCLICENCEThis podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. To find out more visit: https://dialogue.earth/en/republishing/Visit our website for more podcasts: https://dialogue.earth/en/podcasts/