-Livemint.com The year that is drawing to a close was dotted by extreme weather events, posing new challenges for weather forecasting New Delhi: Unseasonal rains and crop damage in several states, followed by deficit rainfall and drought in nine states, topped off by a deluge in Chennai at the end of 2015. The year that is drawing to a close was dotted by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent. Several...

-The Hindu Business Line A CAG audit shows that the Centre and State governments have been criminally remiss over disaster management The unprecedented and continuing rains that have broken a 100-year record and have wreaked havoc in Chennai for over a week, highlight both elaborate rescue and relief efforts as well as gaps in the existing policy on disaster planning. It is true that swift deployment of the armed forces to evacuate...

-The Times of India Yet another deluge, coming close on the heels of the wettest November Chennai has seen in over a century, is something the city just could not cope with. Heavy rains on November 16 had exposed the appalling state of the civic infrastructure that was totally unprepared to handle the floods. Clogged and overflowing drains, inundated housing colonies, rotting garbage, electrocutions and roads caving in at many places...

-Hindustan Times If you thought climate change was only about melting glaciers and sinking islands, you have underestimated it. A report by C40, a global network of 82 megacities--including Delhi--committed to fighting climate change, says that at least 70% of these urban centres are already affected by climate change. Not all of them are coast or hill towns. As population is increasing in these megacities, rising pollution, growing congestion and mounting waste...

-Economic and Political Weekly Chennai floods show the vulnerabilities that arise from the neglect of urban planning. In the second week of November, flood-marooned people in Chennai had an unlikely Good Samaritan. The cab service provider, Ola. As the city struggled to come to terms with its highest rainfall in 10 years, the cab company pressed in boats from an aquatic adventure outfit and secured the services of professional rowers and fishworkers...