Water stress is set to become Asia's defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor.
This article in Geospatial World deals with the analysis of the role of geomorphic features in causing and controlling the Kosi flood. The article in conclusion states that canal is a man-made route for free flowing of water towards down slope. During the Kosi flood in 2008, drainage turned into canals and they worked as embankments along both side of drainages, where drainages are flanked by canals. Thus, canal network checks lateral spreading of flood water and saves life and property in adjacent areas.
The Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development in consultations with the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) has issued revised guidelines on the inclusion of forest areas under the Integrated Wasteland Management Program (IWMP).
Union Minister of Corporate Affairs Shri Murli Deora released the “National Voluntary Guidelines on social, environmental and economic responsibilities of business” that will mainstream the subject of business responsibilities” in July 2011. At a function held in Ashoka Hotel, the minister expressed the hope that this guideline will strengthen and enable the Indian corporate sector to evolve into a global leader in responsible business.
This scientific correspondence by P Goswami in Current Science is in response to a recent article in it by Sulochana Gadgil and J Srinivasan where they presented the outcome of the project ‘Seasonal Prediction of the Indian Monsoon’ (SPIM).
This commentary by K S Valdiya in Current Science deals with the increased incidence of spells of intense-extreme rainfall, the resultant obstructions in floodways, the loss of carrying-holding capacity of rivers and the channelization of floodwater.