The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion. But the real cost is far higher. Disaster costs …
Until three years ago most people in Bundelkhand wanted to take the next train to Bhopal or Delhi. Today several villages are bereft of people of working age. Bundelkhand, spanning 13 districts in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has been in the grip of a terrible drought for the past …
First pulses, now milk. The common household is compelled to give up on its easy sources of protein. This special report by Down to Earth finds that rise in fodder prices, not rise in demand, is pushing up the cost of milk. To read the full story click on the …
Surinder Sud / New Delhi June 21, 2010, 0:37 IST Paucity of monsoon rainfall alone is not a sufficient determinant of drought, maintains the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Several other factors need to be taken into account to declare an agricultural drought. This opinion emerges from a meeting of 19 …
More than half the world’s population depends on the Asian monsoon water for agriculture. Beginning with the British mathematician Sir Gilbert Walker in the 19th century, much time has been devoted in trying to understand the summer rains. But the observational record is too short to explain long-term variability in …
The Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia's five largest rivers are in no danger of disappearing by 2035, as claimed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent report. In fact, only the glaciers that melt into the Ganges are shrinking, according to the most detailed analysis yet of how …
Anantapur, June 10: People of at least 40 villages under Kanekal, Beluguppa, Bommanahal and D. Hirehal mandals in Anantapur district are shivering with the impending accumulation of sand dunes that create havoc in this part of world during July to September, an annual and unavoidable phenomena. Thick layers of sand …
Xan Rice A severe drought is causing increasing hunger across the Eastern Sahel in west Africa, affecting 10 million people in four countries, aid agencies warned on Friday. In Niger, the worst-affected country, 7.1 million are hungry, with nearly half considered highly food insecure because of the loss of livestock …
If mitigation is about energy, adaptation is about water. This is the opening statement of a new essay on water and adaptation, written by two of the worlds leading profiles in the water sector, professor Torkil J
The Committee on Agriculture present this eleventh report on deficient monsoon and steps taken by the Government to mitigate its impact on agriculture sector. The Committee, taking into consideration the deficient rainfall in the country during Kharif 2009, had decided to select this subject for study and report to Parliament.
New Delhi: In India, crops worth millions of rupees are lost every year because of weather-related problems like floods and droughts. The central government runs a weather-based crop insurance scheme in some states to save farmers from vagaries of nature. In a recent study, the Federation of Indian Chamber of …
Inkarguda (Adilabad), May.26: The prevalent drought conditions in the district have hit the cattle hard. A large number of old and weak cows and buffalos in the district are not returning home after grazing. Their carcasses are being found in the nearby jungles or in the bushes on the outskirts …
Trudging down the Leh bazaar, Ishay Tundup, an elderly farmer, holds up a bag full of green vegetables. An ordinary sight surely but it was far from that. This 70-year-old man had grown vegetables all his life. He had never needed to buy them from a bazaar. Tundup is one …
It is the week after Holi. We are sitting in Netsinh, a village 65 kms from the city of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Derawar Singh is throwing a daavat (banquet) for he has purchased a tractor. A goat has been slaughtered for the occasion. Netsinh has 250 families, all of whom …
Adilabad, May 11: The shortage of drinking water is so acute in the remote Adivasi habitations (gudems) in the Agency are that it forced the district administration to relocate the gudems to nearby plain areas to save lives. The severe drinking water problem and water contamination, which resulted in Adivasi …
Cyclones can be more devastating and frequent with change of climate.Tawhidul Islam CLIMATE change issues in Bangladesh are generally viewed as the way issues are perceived at global scales. The activities and action plans those are currently in progress in Bangladesh are deeply influenced by the estimates and model predictions …
Given IMD?s past record on forecasts, the latest one could also go wrong Surinder Sud / New Delhi May 6, 2010, 0:03 IST Can you trust India Meteorological Department
There is an urgent need to come up with a national plan to avoid the consequences of climate change, as it will alter the temporal and spatial patterns of precipitation and trigger droughts, mudslides, typhoons, cyclones, and floods in the country. This was the consensus reached by speakers at a …
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A disaster management plan has been prepared for all the 14 districts of Kerala. Revenue Minister K.P.Rajendran said that the Disaster Management Authority, in association with the UNDP, had done great work in this regard. A major workshop, involving all people concerned, was held in Thrissur. A comprehensive state …
P. Sainath Two years of drought has started to take its toll on the people of Vidarbha, with a failed crop leaving them with no income to tide over the crisis. Parched land:Across rural Amravati, Akola, Washim and Yavatmal, almost every human being you see in the morning is collecting …
