-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's weather agency has revised its 2014 monsoon forecast downwards, predicting 13 per cent rainfall deficit instead of 7 per cent forecast earlier this year, cautioning that yields of several crops may decline but dismissing fears of a widespread drought. The India Meteorological Department today said the rainfall during the remaining six weeks of the monsoon season will be much better than over the past two months. But...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Earth Science Ministry of Environmental and Forests (MoEF), Govt of India had undertaken the Indian second National Communication to UNFCCC during 2009-2011(NATCOM-II). The communication had been a national effort which involved many multi-disciplinary scientific groups. Ministry of Earth Sciences carry out scientific studies on climate change and variability under Global and Regional Climate Change (GRCC) programme. Under GRCC programme of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Earth...

-BBC At least 60 people died in a recent outbreak of viral encephalitis in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, a top health official has said. Doctors say patients come from seven affected districts in northern Bengal. The disease usually occurs during the monsoon season across northern India and West Bengal is normally not among the worst-affected states. Encephalitis causes brain inflammation and can result in brain damage. Symptoms include headaches and fever. West...

-The Hindustan Times ‘Himalayan Glaciers will disappear by 2035'. This was one the very alarming conclusions of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was brought to my attention when I took over as minister for environment and forests in May 2009. Could this really be true, I wondered. I then decided to convene a series of meetings with experts from different institutions across the country. And what...

-Down to Earth No acknowledgement from government as unofficial drought spells ruination for farmers in central and north-west India Even though IMD will declare a drought confirmation later in the year, the unofficial drought continues to exist. The threat of one of the worst droughts looms large over India. The India Meteorological Department declared that the country as a whole received 43 per cent less rainfall till July 11, 2014. The average amount...