-The Hindu However, suicides among landowning farmers dropped slightly during pandemic year The number of agricultural labourers who died by suicide in 2020 was 18% higher than the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released on Thursday. However, suicides among landowning farmers dropped slightly during the pandemic year. The farm sector was one of the few bright spots in the Indian economy last year, recording growth on the...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org It's been hard days for powerloom weavers in the city's Bazardiha cluster – with lockdowns and monsoon flooding. But it’s the UP government’s review of their electricity subsidy that has them the most worried In the narrow lanes of Bazardiha, amid the clacking sounds of powerlooms, Wasim Akram is busy at work. He has been weaving since the age of 14 in the same two-storey brick-cement house – generations old, as...

-The Tribune Along with better forecasts, we need better monitoring and reporting of actual rainfall, water levels in rivers and incidents of landslides. More timely and location-specific forecasts that would enable the disaster management authorities to take the necessary advance actions would help. Such emergency action plans would follow only if there is a functional, accountable and participatory disaster management mechanism in place. This month’s flood disasters in two states distant from...

-The Hindu Did Kerala and Uttarakhand receive incessant rain in October due to climate change? The story so far: Even as the southwest monsoon began to retreat from the subcontinent, Kerala and Uttarakhand received record rainfall in October. In both these States and others, over the last few years, there have been variations in the pattern and intensity of rainfall. Kerala had seen a severe spell in 2018, which caused havoc. This...

-PTI/ TheNewsMinute.com Of the 694 districts in the country, 45% of them have recorded rainfall in large excess. India received 41% more rainfall than normal from October 1-21 with Uttarakhand alone recording more than five times its normal precipitation, IMD data showed on Thursday. Providing a numerical perspective to the unusually heavy rains ravaging several parts of the country, particularly the hill state of Uttarakhand in the north and coastal Kerala in...