-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A new study by Nasa scientists has concluded that there is a strong link between agricultural fires in Punjab and Haryana and PM2.5 levels in Delhi during the post-monsoon months of October and November. PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi, which is downwind to Punjab and Haryana, show a coherent increase — rising often from as low as 50 micrograms per cubic metres (µg/ m3) before the...

-PTI ‘North central region seeing much wetter pattern, with stronger monsoons over the last 15 years’ Washington: Monsoon has strengthened over north central India in the last 15 years, researchers from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have said, indicating a reversal in the general perception that the region has dried up in over a decade. Chien Wang, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, the...

-The Indian Express A report on air quality, released during the conference, said Varanasi and Allahabad have not seen a single ‘good’ air quality day in the past one year. Varanasi: Burning agricultural residue doesn’t just bring down air quality, but also leads to longer spells of dense fog, scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur have concluded. While the concentration of oxidised organic carbon that is produced after burning biomass —...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: The government’s ambitious plan to interlink India’s rivers for better distribution of water across the country may need to be tweaked to factor in the effects of climate change. An analysis of weather data for 103 years (1901 to 2004) by researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology in Mumbai and Chennai shows that rainfall has decreased over the years, reducing water stocks even in river basins that have...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Unwilling to take any chances with rainfall this year, the Maharashtra government plans to undertake cloud-seeding in parts of the state at the start of monsoon, especially over water supply schemes that provide water to the parched Marathwada region. The experiment was conducted last year between August and November, but officials say the project wasn't very effective as there weren't enough moisture-laden clouds and it was only...