Droughts and Floods

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)
October 30, 2022 This book by Dr. Mitul Baruah presents a fascinating, ethnographic account of the challenges faced by communities living in Majuli, India, one of the largest river islands in the world, which has experienced immense socio-environmental transformations over the years, processes that are emblematic of the Brahmaputra Valley as a whole. This is an excerpt from the book.
Floods are recurrent phenomena in Assam (Image: Mitul Baruah)
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 21, 2022 Floods are not feared, but rather welcomed by the Mishing communities from Majuli island in Assam as they bring bountiful fish- a rich source of food, nutrition and livelihood for the community.
The Majuli island, a haven for fish (Image Source: Usha Dewani, India Water Portal)
August 10, 2022 The irrigation at all costs mindset and narrow policies for drought protection during the colonial rule ignored rainfed agriculture and local practices that sustained agriculture in the Bombay Deccan. This continues even today.
Recurrent droughts and the struggle for survival (Image Source: Gaurav Bhosale via Wikimedia Commons):
August 2, 2022 The frequency and intensity of floods is on the rise in Assam spelling doom for fish biodiversity.
Life during floods in Assam (Image Source: Kausika Bordoloi via Wikimedia Commons)
Saving the Ganga, one step at a time
A walk along the Ganga is all it takes to get a better perspective on the river and its deteriorating ecosystem. Here’s an attempt at it. Posted on 21 Dec, 2016 09:11 AM

An aerospace engineer from IIT, Kharagpur, Siddharth Agarwal could have been drawing a fancy salary like any other 25-year-old if he hadn’t followed his passion.

Siddharth Agarwal (Photo credit-Siddharth Agarwal)
Storm after a lull
After a brief interval, the north-east monsoon made its presence felt through the cyclonic storm Vardah, terrorising both coastal Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Posted on 15 Dec, 2016 01:03 PM

Chennai’s disastrous December run continues for the second year in a row. While the devastating flood of December 2015 remains etched in the city’s collective memory, cyclone Vardah was no less scary and did not lag behind in its severity.

One of the many calamities of cyclone Vardah in Jawahar Nagar near Perambur.
Summer of discontent
A wetland which is one of the Ramsar sites in India, struggles to maintain its character due to lack of water. Posted on 14 Dec, 2016 11:35 AM

On a 29 sq km tract of land in Bharatpur, Rajasthan lies the wildlife reserve, Keoladeo national park, locally known as Ghana. Birds enjoy the open water while wildlife roams freely in this montage of wetland, grassland and forest. The wetland, which is man-made, has a diversity of open water, trees and grasses.

An Indian cormorant dries its wings at Keoladeo national park, Bharatpur. (Source: Aastha Singh, Wikimedia Commons)
Traditional ways to water security
Reviving traditional water bodies, and not environmentally-unsustainable mega projects which are expensive, is the most viable solution to deal with water scarcity in parched lands like Bundelkhand. Posted on 04 Dec, 2016 08:15 PM

Although droughts are not new in India, we are seeing more of it of late.

A traditional pond in the fort city of Charkhari, Bundelkhand. (Source: India Water Portal)
Grand scheme to befriend farmers
Despite farmers’ apprehension, the new crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, is considered a game changer. Posted on 26 Nov, 2016 06:38 PM

“Agriculture is a highly risky venture,” says Nagi Reddy, a farmer in Anantapur. Reddy is a small farmer affected by uncertainty in crop production stemming from unpredictable weather events and pest attacks, especially in his cotton crop. He works on his 2.5-acre farm and the rest of the time, he clocks in as a tenant farmer at an adjacent farm.

A group of farmers in Karnataka's project on spice value chain development.. (Source: Rakesh Sahai, Wikimedia Commons, 2015)
Use rain to beat drought
An analysis by IMD proves that rainwater harvesting is the best way to overcome the continuous dry spells the country witnesses. Posted on 23 Nov, 2016 10:32 AM

A recent analysis by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) determined the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential of the districts in Maharashtra in a year by calculating the average amount of rainwater in litres that can be caught over one square foo

Mumbai in monsoon. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Mumbai wetlands as parking area: FIR filed
News this week Posted on 21 Nov, 2016 06:06 AM

FIR against man who let vehicles be parked on Mumbai wetlands

Mumbai wetland (Source:Wikipedia)
Crop change for better yield?
Crop patterns in India are changing without consideration for local agro-climatic conditions. This puts a burden on environment, incurring huge long-term losses. Posted on 15 Nov, 2016 10:48 AM

The past few months saw Karnataka and Tamil Nadu bickering over the sharing of the Cauvery water. It was the failure of the south-west monsoon that had put crops in Karnataka at risk, forcing the government to stop water supplies to Tamil Nadu. The arrival of the north-east monsoon in Tamil Nadu, however, has eased this tension.

Since the introduction of green revolution, four kharif crops have marched to newer grounds.
Angry, swirling waters
When the twisted model of Uttarakhand’s development goes wrong, a river lashes out killing many. A new book tries to shed light on what went wrong to cause the great Kedarnath disaster. Posted on 07 Nov, 2016 09:55 PM

“The gravity of the Kedarnath disaster in June 2013, which killed thousands of people, shocked the public almost to the point of numbness”... begins the forward by Bill Aitken in Hridayesh Joshi’s account of the disaster Rage of the river: The untold story of the Kedarnath disaster. It’s a sentence which will whirl in your mind while you read Joshi’s book.

Gori floods (Source: Chicu Lokgariwar, India Water Portal)
Kerala declares its districts drought-hit
News this week Posted on 07 Nov, 2016 09:51 AM

All 14 districts in Kerala have been declared drought-hit

Parched land during drought in India. (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
×