-Grist Media   The people of the Thar desert have their ways. This story unfolds over a year and recounts history through contemporary lives lived gently and with the land. It experiences first-hand the extraordinary old magic of growing lush crops in the desert. The land was the color of burnt caramel. It was flat and it was featureless: there was no tree in sight, no blade of grass, no ditch, no dune,...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: India's states will see more intense unpredictable freak weather in the coming days, warned climate change scientists, days after huge chunks of hail killed at least 10 people and wounded scores in Andhra Pradesh and hail storms this week destroyed cropland across Karnataka and Maharashtra. "The key word is these extreme events will increase under climate change and we near to gear up quickly to counter it...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Rain and flash floods have pushed back development works in Uttarakhand by decades and the challenge at the moment is to build smarter projects without impacting the fragile environment of the hilly region, said World Bank's country director Onno Ruhl. "In Uttarakhand, the challenge is to build smarter, so that they do not undermine the fragility of the environment," he told PTI after the approval of a $250 million...

-The Times of India PATNA: The Ganga, on Friday, continued to recede both at the Digha ghat and Gandhi ghat in the state capital. However, at both the places, the river was still above the danger mark. According to the data released by state water resource department, water level of Ganga on Friday morning at Gandhi ghat was 49.44m and 50.36m at Digha ghat. The receding trend brought relief to a section...

-The Business Standard Dehradun: The immediate aftermath of a disaster almost always brings out angry responses. The tragic incident in Uttarakhand is no exception. Many experts, who belong to the "I told you so" camp, have come out with their own causal analysis of the tragedy. While town planners are blaming the rapid expansion of construction activities, naturalists are of the view that the disaster is nature's way of restoring balance...