-The Telegraph   Chief minister Nitish Kumar today conducted an aerial survey and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams rushed to the central Bihar districts for rescue operations after over 8.39 lakh cusecs of water was suddenly released from the Vansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh. The water released from the MP-based dam has put enormous pressure on the Indrapuri barrage in Rohtas and several places on the embankment along the river Sone. The...

Floods are vital to Kaziranga; dams on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra could disrupt the balance A few weeks ago, much of the grasslands of Kaziranga National Park were under water. The monsoon floods bring with them their own set of problems—some of the animals, for instance, have to be rehabilitated—but they are required for the very existence of the park. The annual floods of the Brahmaputra creates grasslands, floodplains, and...

Residents of the state capital, who had planned to binge on non-vegetarian food after Sawaan, will have to go slow because of an increase in the price of onions, a common ingredient in meat and fish dishes. Ironically, vegetarian dishes, too, will cost more as the prices of greens have also shot north. Though you and I have to shell out more, there has been only a marginal increase in the wholesale...

-PTI   Monsoon on Wednesday continued to wreak havoc as heavy rains triggered floods, landslides and claimed at least twelve lives in northern and eastern India. Eight persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh, two each in West Bengal and Meghalaya, official reports said. Heavy downpours left eight persons dead in Uttar Pradesh where major rivers are on the verge of flooding hundreds of villages. The release of flood waters from Nepal has worsened the situation...

-The Telegraph   The government today issued a flood alert for 10 districts with the warning that the situation may deteriorate if the rain continues. “The situation is being monitored round the clock,” said irrigation minister Manas Bhuniya. He said the water levels of some rivers had risen following continuous rainfall over the past two days in their catchment areas. “The districts for which a flood alert has been issued are Malda, Murshidabad, North...