Climate Change

Bhagalpur canal in Bihar collapses during trial run

The Western Ghats is one of the eight hotspots of biological diversity in the world and is spread across six states—Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The forests in the Western Ghats are the water towers of peninsular India.

As the debate around climate change rages on with the growing intensity of hurricanes like Harvey and Irma, climate change is already becoming a ground reality for scores of farmers in the hill state of Mizoram.

Ousteri lake is the largest water body in the Puducherry region.

In August this year, the states of Bihar and Assam witnessed the worst flooding in a long time. The water level is slowly receding now but it is not giving much respite to people as the aftermath of the devastating floods has brought upon miseries of its own. 

It was supposed to be a normal monsoon as Indian Meteorological Department had predicted. But barring the central plateau, the rest of India may be forgiven for thinking that the Biblical deluge has come a second time.

Glaciers in the Himalayas, which store large amounts of water in the form of glacial ice, have an intricate relationship with climate change. A new study in an important basin in the Indian Himalayas shows that low-altitude glaciers are more sensitive to climate change and have lost a significant amount of water in the past three decades.

In our effort to make space for infrastructural developments, India's green cover is declining at an alarming rate. The overall mangrove cover in the country stands at 4,740 sq. km., which is 0.14 sq. km of India’s overall geographical area. 

The eastern and the northeastern parts of the country including states like Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal are witnessing heavy downpour and floods for the last few weeks. The rain is wreaking havoc with rivers breaching embankments and flooding roads and destroying houses and bridges.

Torrential downpour in the eastern part of the country over the past week has resulted in many rivers flowing above the danger level and causing flood along their course. While the flood situation in Assam is said to be the worst in 13 years, its neighbouring states, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar are also submerged.