The report discusses the climate condition over Indian region during the year 2023. Notably, global temperatures soared to exceptionally high levels during this period (WMO.No.1347). The India Meteorological Department continuously monitors weather and climate over Indian region. The annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over India during 2023 was …
Imagine a dense forest lush with orchids, mosses and ferns on practically every surface, where each tree branch is like a garden, and the air is cool and damp due to perpetually misty conditions. These extraordinary rainforests, known as cloud forests, are under threat from climate change and human activities, …
A good mango harvest augurs well for paddy production, says a popular Oriya folklore. So, many farmers in paddy-intensive regions of the state, such as Bargarh district, plan their paddy-selling quota on this basis. Another popular folklore in Orissa links good tamarind harvest to floods. There are many such examples …
simple remedy: Garlic not only keeps the vampires at bay, but also pests such as slugs and snails, which cause millions of dollars worth of damage in countries with cool or temperate climates. Scientists from the uk-based University of Newcastle upon Tyne have found that the pungent herb could act …
Europe is facing its worst heat wave in decades. While the scorching sun has come as a blessing for holidaymakers, widespread crop failure and forest fires have got farmers and the administration worried. At places, water levels have sunk so low that power companies are unable to generate any electricity …
a new report may be just another lame attempt to defend the us stance on global warming. As per its findings, the impact of cosmic rays on our climate far outweighs that of carbon dioxide. "It's no excuse to ignore sensible resource use, but the bottom line is that carbon …
Titlagarh, one of the hottest places in India, is undergoing a cool makeover. The sweltering summer that this small town of western Orissa experiences can be primarily attributed to its being surrounded by several rocky, barren hills which radiate heat throughout the day. Two of the hills are right inside …
It is the earth's final frontier. Antarctica, a gigantic mass of ocean-encased rocky islands south of the Antarctic Circle, is the earth's southern-most continent. There is no place colder or drier. Stark but majestic, uncompromisingly bleak but alluring, 98 per cent of the continent's 14 million kilometres (km) is sheathed …
On a hot June day in 1981 S Z Qasim, then environment secretary, reached out to answer a telephone. The caller was Indira Gandhi, the prime minister. The conversation was brief and to the point. "Can India reach Antarctica?' asked the prime minister. Qasim, who had only an academic knowledge …
A 1996 expert group report on the Indian Antarctic programme says: "The programme has so far been working in complete isolation with no substantial element of international cooperation. While actual attempts are being made by various countries through the aegis of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) to join hands …
Desolate, cold, inhospitable, relegated to the backyards of exploration and knowledge. Antarctica did not emerge from this unfortunate fate till less than 100 years ago, before which, whalers and seafarers were its only visitors. Cartographers barely acknowledged its presence (or chose to ignore it altogether). And the first explorations, which …
clouds and water vapour, hidden until now from most atmospheric sensors, are influencing global climate. They were recently detected by Junhong Wang and his colleagues from the us-based National Centre for Atmospheric Research (ncar). The clouds have little affect on daily weather forecasts. But they tend to warm the planet, …
the weather gods seem hell-bent on proving the India Meteorology Department (imd) wrong. Barely had it recovered from the embarrassment of forecasting the monsoon incorrectly when the winter wrong-footed it. An unusually severe nightly fog, enveloping a vast stretch of the Indo-Gangetic belt from Punjab to Kolkata, has confounded the …
poor people invariably bear the burden of development. A recent study is another testimony to this fact. It indicates global warming has led to more malaria in East Africa
recently, us researchers have proved for the first time that the water vapour exhaust trails or contrails that are left by cruising jet planes have an insulating effect on daily temperatures. Andrew Carleton from us-based Pennsylvania State University and colleagues measured the effect of contrails during the three-day grounding of …
The new buzzword in the climate research circles is vulnerability and adaptation. Just like most of the climate discussion the words have become so dense, that their meaning is lost on most, except the most conversant and involved. It is almost as if the effort is to convolute the science …
We are not starting from scratch. Our institutions have been substantially weakened. But they still exist,' says Hedayat Amin-Arsala, minister of finance of Afghanistan Interim Authority. Hidayat's statement has more meaning now when the interim government is struggling hard to convene the Loya Jirga and to chart out his country's …
life ravaged by war and drought has one hope: resilience of a people. "A good monsoon and a bit of peace will bring Afghan's life to normal,' says J Gabriel Campbell of icimod. Take Kohistan district of Kapisa province for example. Just after usa bombarded and damaged water channels in …
