-Down to Earth A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events It is a chilly December evening in Barmer. The average minimum temperature has dropped to 5° Celsius in this sandy district of western Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan. But thanks to his house, Dayam Khan, a Manganiyar, one of Rajasthan's many communities of traditional musicians, does not need an electric heater or a stove to keep...
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At Kaladera farmers battle beverage giant -Mahim Pratap Singh
-The Hindu Farmers in this Rajasthan block blame the drastic fall in groundwater table on the bottling plant, saying it draws out far more water than can be naturally recharged KALADERA (GOVINDGARH): Till the late 1990s, Bansi Aheer, like all other farmers around Kaladera, used to irrigate his seven-bigha farm, drawing water from a well. "Water was easily available at about 40 feet. But it dropped annually by one or two feet...
More »India’s SO2 emissions up by 71 per cent in 5 years, shows US study -Aparna Pallavi
-Down to Earth 'CPCB underestimating pollution from coal-fired thermal power plants' Data released by NASA's Aura satellite calls into question the veracity of Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) claim made in 2012 that the mean sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions in India decreased in 2010 as compared to 2001 level. A new study led by Zifeng Lu of Decision and Information Sciences Division of Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, USA, based on images...
More »CAG picks holes in govt spending worth Rs 3 lakh crore -Pradeep Thakur
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Raising doubts on the genuineness of the government's plan expenditure, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has written to the finance ministry saying its Data provided on schemes worth over Rs 3 lakh crore for 2012-13 "points to serious deficiencies". The auditor said a detailed scrutiny had revealed that government in several cases was giving post-dated sanctions - in some instances sanctions were granted by the...
More »Climate change alters land map of India -Snehal Rebello
-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: The adverse effects of climate change are being felt on more than a fourth of India's landmass over the last four decades. While some parts of the country have turned arid, others have witnessed more rainfall. A study by the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) at Hyderabad has revealed that about 27% of the country's geographical area has been directly impacted by climate change, a result...
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