Climate and Weather

Featured Articles
December 12, 2022 Study looks at behavioral biases in crop insurance adoption
Adoption rate of crop insurance low in India despite government efforts (Image: PxHere, CC0 Public Domain)
September 13, 2022 Heavy rains and floods have battered Bengaluru yet again. Uncontrolled and unregulated development and concretisation of the city that pays no heed to the ecology and hydrology of the region needs to stop!
Urban flooding in Bangalore (Image Source: Thejas via Wikimedia Commons)
August 11, 2022 This could lead to water quality crisis reinforcing the need for basin-specific management strategies
Around the world, more than a fifth of nitrogen released by human activity ends up in aquatic ecosystems (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
May 14, 2022 Climate change is real. What are its implications for India? This book presents a first of its kind national forecast on the impact of global warming on climate in India.
Climate change is real. What does it mean for India? (Image Source: Robert Hensley/Wikimedia Commons)
March 29, 2022 The intensity and duration of heat waves is predicted to increase in India and human induced anthropogenic changes are to blame.
A man sits under the scorching heat of the sun in front of Amer fort in Jaipur (Picture courtesy: Prabhu B Doss, Flickr Commons: CC-By-NC-ND-2.0)
Development or drastic ecological changes: Where is Dehradun headed?
Inspite of Dehradun being declared as an Ecologically Sensitive Zone 30 years ago, we couldn’t safeguard its fragility. Will the so called 'Smart City Plan' by UHUDA really help? Posted on 05 Feb, 2016 11:49 AM

The Babur Nama mentions that the “

The changing face of Dehradun (Source: Wikipedia)
Unnatural world: National parks and climate change
Poachers, citizens and sometimes animals themselves are threats to the parks but the biggest new threat is climate change. Do our national parks stand a chance of surviving it? Posted on 01 Feb, 2016 03:39 PM

Forest guards in India have fought many things over time in the course of their daily work--poachers, irate citizens, even animals at times! But they are now facing a threat that may well be beyond their capacity to overcome. A threat that is not just responsible for the death of individual animals, but for the destruction of entire groups of species--climate change.

A herd of elephants cross the Ramganga river at Corbett National Park
The semi-arid regions of the Moyar-Bhavani basin
State sponsored policies and programmes must be sensitive to promote sustainable developmental activities in this already fragile social ecological system in Tamil Nadu. Posted on 17 Jan, 2016 10:56 PM

Today's rural poor operate in highly risky and uncertain environments. Grappling with multiple stresses like eroding natural resources, poor assets and increasing climate variability, they are constantly adjusting their lives and livelihoods--changing a crop grown, digging another well, or migrating to a nearby town.

Large population of scheduled caste, and other communities reside in or around protected areas of the basin.
IMD to stop using the term 'drought'
News this week Posted on 12 Jan, 2016 09:55 AM

IMD to replace the term 'drought' with 'deficient year'

Affected by drought (Source: IWP Flickr Photo)
Odisha tribals humour changing skies with mixed platters
The Kondh tribes believe that the more one visits the farm, the better the crops will be because the bond between man, land and plant strengthens. Mixed cropping furthers this thought. Posted on 11 Jan, 2016 09:18 PM

Bamboo trees bloomed with long wispy spikes weighing heavy on the stalks. While it might've made for a pretty picture, Loknath Nauri knew it would be a tough year. “More the density of the flowers, the more severe the drought we face,” he says. This was in March 2015 in the forests of southern Odisha.

Aadi Kumbruka with various types of legumes, millets, oilseeds and corns grown on his farm.
Ken-Betwa river gets some respite
Statutory clearance not given for the much touted Ken-Betwa model link project of the Interlinking of Rivers programme due to extreme social and environmental concerns. Posted on 08 Jan, 2016 01:03 PM

In December 2015, more than forty years after it was conceived, the Government was set to launch India’s ambitious 30-link river interlinking project linking 37 rivers.

View of Betwa river (Source: Manual Menal, Wikimedia Commons)
Rice-fish culture transforms the lives of cyclone-hit farmers in Odisha
Rice-fish systems allow for the production of fish and other aquatic animals as well as rice from the same rice field area, and generally without causing reductions in rice yields. Posted on 06 Jan, 2016 11:24 PM

Coastal regions of Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha have been hit by cyclonic storms for more than two decades.

Integrated Rice Fish Culture Unit Rajnagar (Source: RCDC, Odisha)
Irumbuliyur Lake explains sudden floods in Chennai
Urban planners have forgotten that lakes and waterways can only be altered by giving appropriate alternative means of storage and drainage. These water bodies must be revived. Posted on 17 Dec, 2015 02:51 PM

The December 2015 rains in Tamil Nadu caused Chennai and its adjoining areas to be suddenly flooded. Huge portions of residential areas and roads were inundated for long periods of time. The rivers too flooded in an unprecedented manner, causing human loss and property damage to individuals, state and corporates.

Irumbuliyur lake outlet from where entire rain water is expected to be drained (Source: P Sakthivel)
First water atlas of the Himalayas launched during COP 21
News this week Posted on 16 Dec, 2015 10:21 AM

First water atlas of the Himalayas launched in Paris

View of the Himalayas from Dhulikhel, Nepal (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Ultratech Cement mines limestone (and villagers) in Chhattisgarh
The people of Parswani were promised jobs, healthcare and water. Now, after signing an MOU, they just about get polluted water for irrigation purposes. Posted on 13 Dec, 2015 03:38 PM

Paraswani village in Balodabazar district, Chhattisgarh contains vast reserves of limestone, a sedimentary rock that is a primary ingredient in the cement manufacturing process. Since 1992, Ultratech Cement Ltd. (UTCL) followed by four other similar companies, have begun excavating this rock within a 30 km radius of the village.

A view of the Ulratech Cement factory from Paraswani
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