Climate Change

India gets its first soil moisture map developed using hydrological model

The latest report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), formally released on Monday, warns that global warming is occurring faster than anticipated and that it can have devastating impacts if steps are not taken to cut down emissions. 

Disasters managers and scientists in Sikkim are keeping a close watch on a lake formed due to the melting of glaciers to see how successful is an experiment they began two years back to siphon off excess water from the lake to prevent it from bursting.

Every time there is a huge flood in India with massive loss of lives and extensive physical damage, there is a hue and cry. Especially, if this takes place in an area not normally prone to such floods. Assam and Bihar, for instance, are regularly laid waste by floods and so, there is not much agitation over that anymore.

If the devastating floods were not enough, the state of Kerala is witnessing further signs of environmental neglect and greedy exploitation of natural resources. There has been a drop in the water level, particularly in those rivers which were flooded recently. It is also reflected in the drying and caving of wells in different parts of the state.

Every time an extreme weather event like the Kerala floods occurs, there is a great demand for information on its causes. The question uppermost in public discourse is if such events can be attributed to climate change and global warming.

Witnessing a multitude of disasters from destructive floods to catastrophic earthquakes, the vulnerabilities arising out of natural disasters are ever increasing in Jammu and Kashmir.

A new study has pointed out that increased irrigation efficiency does not translate to more water availability for other uses at the watershed level. The subsidies for increasing irrigation efficiency are intended to increase crop production as well as more return flow from irrigated areas that can be allocated to urban, domestic and industrial uses.

When the five overflow gates of the Cheruthoni dam, a part of the Idukki reservoir comprising Cheruthoni, Kulamavu and Idukki arch dam were opened one by one on August 9, 2018, a torrent of water and mud gushed out. Heavy, unceasing rains had led to the dam reaching close to its maximum capacity, forcing the dam authorities to open all its gates.

A new study has suggested that the government must consider changes occurring due to climate change while planning new hydropower projects.