India

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Centre fails to see the wood for the trees

The latest FSI report says India is getting greener. A closer look at the story behind the numbers says otherwise.

Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 03:38 PM

As per the biennial State of Forest Report (SFR) 2017 by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the total forest and tree cover in India increased during the period 2015 to 2017 by 0.94 percent. The increase in the forest cover has been of the order of 6,778 sq km and that of tree cover was about 1,243 sq km.

India’s forest cover stands at 21.54 percent while its dense forest cover is about 12.26 percent, as per the State of Forest Report, 2017. (Image: Tridib Choudhury, Wikimedia commons, CC BY SA-4.0)

Looking for a Technology Lead to vision and execute a societal platform for water

Arghyam, a philanthropic trust that works in water and sanitation, has an opening in Technology

Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 12:23 PM

You are looking at a unique opportunity where technology and domain expertise can come together to create powerful demonstrable use cases for water solutions at scale.

CPCB: Delhi's groundwater most exploited

News this week

Seetha Gopalakrishnan

Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 11:38 AM

Delhi's groundwater most ‘over exploited’ after Punjab and Rajasthan

Extraction of groundwater far exceeds recharge in many places. (Picture courtesy: The Hindu)

Karnataka to stop industries from using fresh river water

Policy matters this week

Seetha Gopalakrishnan

Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 11:19 AM

Karnataka to formulate plan to prohibit industries from drawing fresh river water

Karnataka plans to regulate fresh water use by industries. (Picture courtesy: India Spend)

Arsenic-affected village gets water after two decades

Kaudikasa village’s two decades of struggle with arsenic contamination in drinking water ends with a new government scheme.

Makarand Purohit

Posted on 12 Mar, 2018 05:41 AM

Kaudikasa is a small village with a population of just 350 people in the Ambagad Chowki block of the Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh. Despite its small size, Kaudikasa village has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Severe health problems have been reported from the village, thanks to acute arsenic contamination in its groundwater.

Yuvraj Singh, a former sarpanch of Kaudikasa near the tube well reported to have the highest level of arsenic contamination.

Monsoon modelling no ‘blind men and elephant’ story

Though there have been amazing advances in the modelling of weather and climate, no model is perfect.

Raghu Murtugudde

Posted on 08 Mar, 2018 04:53 PM

In a few weeks from now, monsoon forecasts will begin. These forecasts are based on calculations made by computer modelling. There have been amazing advances in the modelling of weather and climate. These include the monsoons, El Niño’s, cyclones, the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), winds, currents, and so on. Just as even a new car is not perfect, these models are not perfect.

The current models for monsoon prediction do not always show perfect results due to the intricacies of the monsoon dynamics. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Study of ancient eclipses can unveil past climate trends

The imprint of perturbations in Earth’s rotation called delta T can be deciphered from records of ancient eclipses: Scientists

Dr T.V. Venkateswaran

Posted on 07 Mar, 2018 06:00 AM

For a long time now, historians have been using epigraphy to infer the political and economic aspects of the past. In recent times, astronomers have come to realise that it can also be a potent tool to understand the history of astronomy as well as for inferring minute changes in the motion of Earth.

Scientists say ancient eclipse records in epigraphical inscriptions can help us understand climate change in historical time scales.

Harappans had knowledge of hydraulic engineering

Researchers have found buried archaeological features at Dholavira, one of the important sites of Harappan civilisation in India.

Dr Vaishali Lavekar

Posted on 07 Mar, 2018 05:47 AM

A team of archaeologists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, conducted a survey of an unexplored area of around 12,276 square metre at Dholavira using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technique which helps to scan the ground and reveal objects buried underground.