-The Indian Express In steel city Rourkela, a massive drinking water crisis is unfolding in the Rourkela Steel Plant township due to the drying up of the river Koel which provides water to the city. With no let-up in intense heatwave conditions in Odisha and over 59 sunstroke deaths being reported across the state, the government yesterday asked all schools in the state to extend their closure till April 26. Early this...

-The Economic Times PUNE | NEW DELHI | KOCHI | KOLKATA: Farmers in Kasegaon, a village in south Maharashtra, have been spending Rs 20 crore every month to make sure their grape orchards get enough water — without irrigation, the crop would shrivel up and die. But they're luckier than some of their counterparts elsewhere in the country — at least there's water to be had, albeit at a stiff price. Two...

Amidst the prevailing gloominess over agrarian crisis, a recently released report says that the growth rate of agricultural output in both India and China were the same during 2008-2013. The agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) of both these countries on an average grew at 3.3 percent per annum during that period. The latest available data from the 2016 Global Food Policy Report, however, indicates that the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka...

-The Hindu Determining whether extreme weather events are caused by climate change is crucial in planning for risks. Else, we will reach a situation in which corrective action may not be enough to protect us Over the past several years, headlines on weather-related extreme events have included heavy downpours followed by floods, droughts, storms, heat and cold waves, and wild fires. Such events typically destroy lives, property and ecosystems while stretching the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The national weather agency has adopted a new rulebook, tweaking figures that define rain conditions, cold and Heat waves and abandoning what it has conceded were ambiguous and unhelpful terminology such as "could" and "may". A forecasting circular issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has altered in subtle ways the definitions of cold and Heat waves (see chart), introducing uniform cut-offs for locations across the country, and...