Droughts and Floods

Featured Articles
December 12, 2022
Why farmers are not adopting crop insurance in India?
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
Slow disaster: Political ecology of hazards and everyday life in the Brahmaputra valley, Assam
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
Chaos in a concrete jungle
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 – a boon than a bane!
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
Taming water - Irrigation and drought protection in colonial India and the present
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
Floods in Assam - a boon or a bane for fish diversity?
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)
Brick kilns take the Ganga away from Patna
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 13 Apr, 2015 08:16 PM

596 brick kilns along Ganga's banks are pushing it away from Patna
Brink kiln in Doddaballapur
Predicted impacts of droughts on agriculture and food production
The paper presents the findings of a study that attempted to estimate the effect of rainfall on the supply and demand sides of agricultural commodities, and their implications on prices.
Praduman Kumar
P K Joshi
Pramod Aggarwal
Posted on 12 Apr, 2015 10:56 PM

Climate change has been predicted to create increasing risks for the agricultural sector thus inversely affecting agricultural production and farm incomes in India. These risks have already manifested in the form of increasing intensity and extent of droughts, floods, temperature rise and fall, and other calamities in the country.
Severe droughts (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Kashmir under danger of floods
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 31 Mar, 2015 12:30 AM

Fear of floods looms over Kashmir again
Landslide and a flooded river
Water, through an artist's lens
Photographer Arjun Swaminathan speaks to India Water Portal about his journey so far, which includes filming water stories.
Aarti Kelkar - Khambete
Posted on 30 Mar, 2015 08:36 AM

How did your interest in filming water stories come about? Is there any particular issue on water that has interested you? What has guided your selection?
Search for water (Source: Arjun Swaminathan)
Drought and the desert: They don't go hand in hand here
With its low rainfall, western Rajasthan might seem like a prime candidate for drought, but the combination of old age wisdom and new age techniques have helped Barmer access fresh water continuously.
Manu Moudgil
Posted on 23 Mar, 2015 09:15 PM

Women in bright, colourful clothes carrying pots on their heads -- this is how popular media often depicts the women of rural Rajasthan. This is what I expected to see in the Bakhasar region of Barmer district, which borders the famous salt desert, the Rann of Kutch. The groundwater is often saline and rainfall does not exceed 250 mm.
Beris serve both people and their livestock.
Land Bill opposed in the Rajya Sabha
Policy matter this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 17 Mar, 2015 04:28 PM

Opposition to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill
Construction activity on what was once a farm land
Unseasonal rains damage crops worth Rs 10,000 crore
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 09 Mar, 2015 08:47 PM

Rabi crop damaged in north and central India
Rainy clouds hovering over Manipur's farmland
Embankments: Engineering solutions or problems?
In his book titled 'Bandini Mahananda', Dinesh Mishra describes the vicious circle of embankments that has created more problems than solutions in Bihar.
Dinesh Mishra
Posted on 02 Mar, 2015 05:12 PM

Mahananda, a major River of north Bihar rises in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It meets the Ganga after a journey of 376 km through the flat lands of Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh. It would spill its banks because of the flat slopes, causing deluge and waterlogging in the Katihar district of Bihar.
Floods in Bihar; Image: Usha Dewani
Small farming needs a budget boost
The asks of the Agriculture sector are many but what all must the budget focus on? A National Convention on Budget 2015-16 by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability looks at these.
Centre for Budgetary and Governance Accountability
Posted on 24 Feb, 2015 10:02 AM

The agriculture sector has been playing a significant role in shaping India’s overall growth trajectory. What promising initiatives should the Budget 2015-16 come up with? Should it extend timely credit facilities to farmers belonging to all the farming categories? Should it extend crop insurance facilities to all farmers and for all crops? 
Farmer in Palamau; Image: VSK, Palamau
Climate change: Slow it down or deal with it?
Climate change is for real and there are two responses – mitigation or adaptation. What does the Union Budget need to do about climate change adaptation?
Centre for Budgetary and Governance Accountability
Posted on 15 Feb, 2015 02:38 PM

Should the next Union Budget go all-in on climate change? Should clean energy, state incentives, mitigation and adaptation all emerge as priorities? How will the administration deal with extreme weather events that become more common with climate change?
Climate change adaptation (Source: VSK, Palamau)
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