The meteorological department records that some 60 mm of rain has fallen in just about 6 hours; 90 mm in 24 hours; and with this the city has made up for its deficit of rainfall this season. In other words, in just about 24 hours Delhi and its surrounding areas …
The grievance redressal mechanism proposed in the draft food security bill could be used for lodging complaints and also monitoring of schemes of similar nature both run by the Centre or the state. The draft bill proposes creation of a multi-layer grievance redressal mechanism comprising of a district grievance redressal …
ALARMED by the changing climatic patterns, the Centre is likely to include either cold wave or frost in the disaster relief fund. At present, compensation under the National Disaster Response Fund and State Disaster Response Fund can be given to victims of natural calamities like cyclone, drought, earthquake, tsunami and …
The paper examines whether the mangrove forests in Kendrapada district of Orissa played any protective role during the severe cyclone that hit the state in October 1999. Using data on human casualties and damages suffered by the houses as dependent variables, and different meteorological, geophysical and socio-economic factors as independent …
A consortium of international agencies is initiating a Tk 1,000 million project to provide support for food security and livelihoods of 211,265 people severely affected by Cyclone Aila over the last two years, of which sixty percent are women, for assisting in their rehabilitation process. The agencies include four members …
AN EARTHQUAKE measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale recently shook Japan, causing a massive tsunami. Changes in groundwater electrical conductivity and soil radon gas can help predict an earthquake in quake-prone regions, according to a team of geologists in India. Earlier studies by Japanese scientists have shown that prior to …
INDIA is constructing six nuclear power plants—two each at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, Kakrapar in Gujarat, and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. Together, they will generate 4,800 MWe of power, states the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s website. This is a big leap towards enhancing the country’s nuclear stature. But is the country …
Japan's centuries-old experience in dealing with natural disasters proves inadequate to help it handle the man-made nuclear crisis. THE magnitude 9.0 earthquake of March 11, the 10-metre-high waves of tsunami that followed, and the aftershocks have left Japan devastated, with thousands dead and radiation from damaged nuclear power plants threatening …
A LOOMING food crisis in the world and high food inflation rates at home made Pranab Mukherjee’s proposals to boost agriculture in his 2011 budget more keenly watched than usual. These are factors that clearly weighed with the finance minister who repeatedly said that his principal concern this year has …
The World Economic Forum—the gathering of power glitterati each year in Davos—has assessed the top risks the world faces in 2011. According to this analysis, climate change is the highest-ranking risk the world will face in the coming years, when its likelihood and impact are combined. What’s even more important …
INTENSE heatwaves in July last year scorched much of Europe and several other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. It took many lives, destroyed crops and ignited forest fires. Scientists say climate change will not just influence the average climate but also extremes such as heatwaves. Taking cue a group of …
SEVERAL countries in the Southern Hemisphere experienced their worst floods in decades in the past two months. While intense rainfall for over a month kept parts of Australia inundated for weeks, severe floods and landslides killed hundreds of people in Brazil and Sri Lanka, and affected more than one million. …
François Jean, a leading figure in Doctors Without Borders and someone who had worked in Ethiopia for long, once wrote that famine was used by the government in Addis Ababa as “a trump card to weaken opposition movements and control populations”. Like Soviet Russia after the Bolshevik revolution and like …
If all goes well, Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorological (IITM) will embark on an ambitious, five-year, Monsoon Mission programme. Revealing this during the course of his presentation at the Indian Meteorological Society, Pune chapter
RAVAGED by flash floods in August, Leh is in dire need of homes for the victims. But rehabilitation work is far from over because of shortage of labour. Victims of floods that followed the biggest cloudburst ever in Ladakh, are living in tents or unfinished houses. Padma Chodol’s house has …
COME winters, farmers in 50 districts of the country will be covered by an experimental crop insurance scheme by the Centre. The new scheme is a modified version of the current programme with new features like providing indemnity and advance relief to farmers. The unit area for the new insurance …
“It is like we are bobbing along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved,” reads one letter. In the last two weeks of September, thousands of Haitians displaced by earthquake have vented their concerns, depositing impassioned pleas for help in new suggestion boxes at camps in the …
TWO months after a cloudburst and floods destroyed their crops and land, hundreds of farmers in Leh are struggling to make a living. Farmlands in the district of Ladakh are covered with thick layers of dried mud and boulders. Stanzin Dorjey, 48, of Taru village, one of the worst affected …
888.7 cm: total average rainfall till September 22 which is 4 per cent above normal 52.7 cm rain fell between September 16 and September 22 which is 44 per cent above normal16.43 million people were affected by floods1,006 people died102 districts were affected34,931 houses were fully damaged772,676 people are living …
