-PTI/ TheWire.in Some 162 persons and 40 animals had to be evacuated to safety by boats so far. Guwahati: The overall flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Friday, August 27 affecting more than 1.33 lakh people spread over 11 districts, according to the daily bulletin issued by Assam State Disaster Management Agency (ASDMA). The districts affected by the flooding caused by heavy rainfall in catchment areas are Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Jorhat,...

-PTI/ TheWire.in The Rishikesh-Gangotri highway (NH-94) has been closed for traffic from Narendra Nagar to Chamba, while the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway (NH-58) has been closed from Tapovan to Maletha. Dehradun: Heavy overnight rains damaged the Rishikesh-Gangotri and Rishikesh-Badrinath national highways in Uttarakhand leading to suspension of traffic along the affected stretches for public safety, an official said on Friday. The Rishikesh-Gangotri highway (NH-94) has been closed for traffic from Narendra Nagar to Chamba, while...

-Down to Earth More than half of the degraded land in the country is either rainfed farmland, responsible for the food security of the country, or forest land that offers the best defenc With close to 30 per cent of its geographical area already affected, land degradation is definitely among India’s most pressing Environmental problems. To make matters worse, almost all Indian states have recorded an increase in degraded land in the...

-The Hindu As questions arise over the Ujjwala scheme’s success, it would be prudent to introduce alternative clean sources of energy In India, many women in poor households who use firewood or dung cakes for cooking spend long hours collecting firewood and making dung cakes. This is drudgery. It affects their health and puts the safety of women and girls in jeopardy. Using firewood and dung cakes also leads to indoor pollution,...

-TheWire.in It has been proven time and again that large 'development' projects, involving the blasting of fragile hills and constraining the flow of rivers, cause huge loss of lives and livelihoods in the Himalayan region. Two big landslides in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh which made national headlines have re-emphasised the need for ecologically protective development in geologically fragile and vulnerable hills. On August 11, a massive landslide on National Highway 5,...