-The Times of India   "Ma Ganga aur Benares se mera rishta purana hai," BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said, pledging his intent to restore the Ganga to its original glory while campaigning in Varanasi. Plans to clean up the 2,500 km holy river too date back to older times -the first Ganga Action Plan was announced in 1986 - but activists claim the stretch flowing through Varanasi is in worse...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The forecast of a weak monsoon this year has brought back worries of a water crisis in the country. Water is fast depleting in key reservoirs, and although current levels are significantly higher than normal in most places with the exception of south India, a slow start to the monsoon next month could quickly bring the situation to a head. The latest update from the...

-The Hindu     Aberrations in monsoon behaviour are not uncommon. What is new is the difficulty in forecasting caused by factors coming under the generic title, ‘Climate change.' Forecasts by the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum and the India Meteorological Department indicate that the south-west monsoon rainfall may be deficient. Also, there is a possibility of the evolution of an El Niño event during June to September. There is a 45 per cent...

-Reuters   The extra irrigated area would cut India's dependence on annual monsoon rains that water crops grown on nearly half of the country's farmlands New Delhi: India plans to expand its farmland under irrigation by at least a tenth in the next three years, potentially boosting grains output by an equal proportion in the world's second-biggest rice and wheat producer, a top government official told Reuters. The extra irrigated area would cut India's...

-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: Forecasting the June-to-September rains, which account for three-quarters of India's annual rainfall, is becoming tougher. Last year, six states had to declare droughts despite predictions of a normal monsoon. Although India is scaling up its prediction techniques, including joint Indo-American forecasting under a bilateral agreement, too little is understood about how pollution and rising temperatures are impacting the monsoon. But new research shows that they are surely...