-The Hindu India needs to formulate adaptation strategies to global warming at the State level and demonstrate if and how these could be meaningful for the country as a whole Kicking off to a warm start, the first few months of 2016 were close to 1.5° Celsius higher than average global temperatures for at least 10,000 years prior to the 19th century. At the Paris Conference of Parties (COP-21) last December, world...

-The Hindu ISRO-led study analysed satellite imageries of the country over an eight-year period Bengaluru: Nearly 30 per cent per cent of the country’s total geographical area is undergoing degradation, according to a study that analysed satellite imageries of the country over an eight-year period. The degrading area has increased over 0.5 per cent to 29.3 million hectares during the period, as shown by comparative remote-sensing satellite imageries of the States for the...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...

-The Hindu With crops hit by drought and the TO-1057 seed, our reporter visits Narayangaon, among the country’s largest tomato growing regions, and finds farmers struggling to cope with the failed harvest but still faithful to the fruit Last week, the grey rain clouds over the Sahyadris seemed full of promise. A few light showers, and colour was slowly returning to parched leaves and the dry earth was beginning to yield again....

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...