-The Hindu Leading hydrogeology scientist explains how India’s dependence on groundwater could lead to a crisis if left unchecked Mumbai: Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material, supplying and sustaining a range of human activity. Yet, because it is invisible and it’s supply often taken for granted, it is often inadequately acknowledged in policy and debates about the preservation of groundwater commons and aquifers. At best, it is usually shrouded in...

-PTI Ahmedabad: Torrential rains pounded parts of Gujarat today, leading to a deluge-like situation at several places, even as the state’s disaster management authority has been put on alert to tackle any emergency situation. Tankara gauged a massive 280 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. Teams of the disaster management department with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel rescued around 14 people stranded in floodwaters in the district. “Tankara...

-IANS Dubbed the Kadwanchi model, the watershed project has given farmers year-round access to water. Jalna: When massive crop failure and farmers’ suicide afflicted the Marathwada region in Maharashtra during the 2012-16 drought, farmers in three villages of Jalna district were not much concerned about the lack of rainfall. A watershed project had obviated their need to look at the heavens every season. Enough water was available in the 1,888 hectares area comprising...

-The Hindu Six months after Tamil Nadu was declared drought-hit, farmers across the Delta districts are no longer blaming Karnataka On June 12, the customary date on which the Mettur dam in Salem district is opened to provide water to the lower reaches of the Cauvery, the riverbed stretched as far as the eyes can see, barren as a desert. P. Ayyakannu, the farmer-leader who recently led a series of protests against...

-The Hindu Barrier-free tributaries flowing in can mitigate the effect, factoring in high-impact projects A new study has found that dams and other barriers across rivers in the Western Ghats do affect fish species and their recovery downstream. However, barrier-free tributaries that drain in to these rivers can help fish recover even in dammed stretches; protecting such tributaries could be crucial to maintaining fish diversity in the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats is...