-TheWire.in While those living outside the embankment area benefit from less flooding and erosion, those within the embankment area are more prone to risk. Supaul (Bihar): On September 10, a fortnight before the announcement of the state assembly elections, Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha laid the foundation for a 4.6 km long extension of the Sikarhatta-Majhari low embankment from Parsauni to Mahisha in Madhubani’s Baidyanathpur area. “The construction of this embankment...

-TheWire.in Since independence, floods in Bihar have affected 2.24 million hectares of agricultural land in all, and precipitated losses worth Rs 768.38 crore between 1953 and 2017. Patna: Every year, floods wreak havoc in Bihar, causing extensive losses and deaths. This year, 7.54 lakh hectares of agricultural land has been destroyed. In 2018, the same figure was only 0.34 lakh hectares, and even last year was 2.61 lakh hectares. In fact, since...

-The Indian Express The Super Cyclone Amphan had left a trail of destruction in South 24 Parganas district where it broke embankments causing saline water to seep into agricultural fields making irreversible changes to the soil texture. Enter the endemic Pokkali rice from Kerala famed for its remarkable resistance to saltwater. Kochi: An interesting experiment is underway in the rice fields near Sunderbans of West Bengal to find out if a certain...

-The Hindu The state and the rich and middle classes remain indifferent as millions slip into chronic hunger and intense poverty India’s labouring poor have largely disappeared even from the inner pages of newspapers and from television screens. It is as though, after the country has gradually unlocked and most migrants have returned home, the wrenching distress of mass hunger and sudden unemployment that racked their lives has somehow passed. The reality...

-The Indian Express In a particularly devastating flood in Assam this year, 49 children have been reported dead so far. Guwahati: On June 1, a 13-year-old in Assam’s Nagaon district drowned while chasing ducks in a flooded river near his house. A month later, on July 1, a six-year-old slipped and fell into the slushy waters of the Champabati river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, in Dhubri district while making her way...