The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
I read newspapers and I watch the news unfold on scores of television channels. But in spite of these sources that keep me informed about current affairs, I would not know that floods are still ravaging vast parts of India. I would not know that over 2,800 people have died …
Agriculture in India is subject to variety of risks arising from rainfall aberrations, temperature fluctuations, hailstorms, cyclones, floods and climate change. These risks are exacerbated by price fluctuation, weak rural infrastructure, imperfect markets and lack of financial services including limited span and design of risk mitigation instruments such as credit …
Even after two years, hurricane Katrina still haunts people in us's port city New Orleans in Louisiana state. Floods that came in the wake of the hurricane have left the soil in the city's schools contaminated with layers of arsenic. A recent report by the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense …
A cholera outbreak has ravaged Orissa's tribal-dominated Kalahandi, Koraput and Rayagada districts since early August. The state government says the region has reported 119 deaths so far. About 6,000 people have been treated for cholera and other stomach diseases. The state's disease surveillance unit says, however, "not all the deaths …
The floods of August 2006 are among the worst Gujarat's Surat city has experienced in recent times. The sudden release of a huge amount of water from the Ukai dam led to over 80 per cent of Surat going under water. More than 2 million people were incommunicado
Lakhinath Chintae is a prosperous farmer in Kamalbari in Assam's Majuli district. But he and his family face a bleak future. The more than 20 hectares (ha) they own have been washed by the recent floods in the state. Elsewhere in Bordolani block in Dhemaji district, Bejia Das has far …
Conventional thinking has it that floods are caused by excessive rainfall. ARCHITA BHATTA finds out that wasn't necessarily the case this year While people in the flood-affected areas are struggling to come to terms with the ravages, the political blame game has begun. In a particularly heated debate in the …
The Task Force for Flood Management and Erosion Control Report of 2004 iterates what the Centre For Science and Environment publication (State of the Environment 1991) had said. It notes that the construction of embankments has had a disastrous impact. Though the absence of data is a severe constraint in …
only Bihar experienced floods this year. Other places suffered water logging. The statement on the recent deluge in large parts of the country might have been dismissed as ludicrous verbiage, had it not been that of the Indian Meteorological Department's spokesperson. Ludicrous it still is. But dismiss it, we cannot. …
A Nepalese community radio station has become the only source of news for flood-hit villagers in Bihar's Darbhanga district. Radio Janakpur is a popular station for people in Bihar's Darbhanga and Sitamarhi districts, even in normal times. But with people not getting newspapers, and with the local radio station submerged …
poachers shot dead two endangered one-horned rhinos fleeing the flooded Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam. The incident in the second week of August puts the toll of rhinos killed this year at 12
The floods in South Asia, which was one of the worst in recent times, have claimed hundreds of lives. By the second week of August, the floods had affected more than 20 million people and claimed around 2,000 lives across India, Nepal and Bangladesh, notes a un report issued on …
central aid has finally been approved to revamp Mumbai's stormwater drainage system by 2011. But experts are sceptical whether the project is still relevant. The Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains (brimstowad) project was conceived after the monsoon floods in 1985. A plan with recommendations was prepared by 1993. But the recommendations …
rains caused widespread destruction in Rajasthan's Jodhpur, Pali and Banswara districts, claiming more than 20 lives in the first week of July. Last year too the showers wreaked havoc in the drought-hit state (see
afghan debt relief: Afghanistan was recently granted interim debt relief meant for impoverished countries with heavy debt. Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, Afghanistan will now have its net public and private debt payments cut by 51 per cent so that more funds can be utilised for healthcare, education …
Floods in the mountain kingdom of Nepal? It sounds unlikely, but Nepal has a low-lying region called Terai, and much of it has been submerged in the past week following intense rains during the south Asian monsoon. Even more surprisingly, Nepal is blaming its downstream neighbour, India, for the floods.
Floods are the most destructive, most frequent and most costly natural disasters on earth. Flood damages have soared in recent decades, despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on flood control structures. This is partly because global warming is causing more severe storms, and partly because of growing populations and …
pakistan floods: Floods caused by cyclone Yemyin and rain devastated southwestern Pakistan in the last week of June. As of July 1, 2007, official reports claim 100 people were dead with thousands missing and homeless. The government has appealed for donations of tents to shelter the homeless. Many casualties had …
The Comptroller and Auditor General's (cag's) audit report for Maharashtra tabled on April 18, 2007 scrutinised the post-flood disaster relief expenditure in the year 2005 and 2006. It indicated that preparedness for floods was inadequate, relief assistance was extended without proper identification of affected persons, financial management was deficient, and …
