-The Hindu Business Line Over 30 people are believed to have died in Friday’s cloudburst in Uttarakhand Thiruvananthapuram: Friday’s cloudburst over Uttarakhand, which is believed to have led to the deaths of over 30 people, could just be a sample of what is to come during the rest of the week, according to the US Climate Prediction Centre. The US agency has indicated the possibility of floods/landslides for the eastern parts of the...

-The Times of India Raipur: Chhattisgarh faces danger of drought, as the state received 59% deficit rain in June. Moreover, monsoon appears to be feeble in the coming months because low pressure over Bay of Bengal is moving only towards Bastar. These are the findings of a weather analysis report prepared by IIT-Bhubaneswar and NASA, said professor ASRAS Sastri, prominent researcher of agro-meteorology in Chhattisgarh. The report also warned that not only...

-The Hindu Once slotted as vermin, these animals are "open season" and could become easy game for hunters as well as traders in meat. Since 2015, the Union Environment Ministry has acceded to requests from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Bihar to declare wild boar, rhesus macaque, and nilgai as vermin within specified territories of these States, and outside forests and protected areas. This reprieve means that those who kill these animals here...

-The Hindu A better approach to man-wildlife conflict management requires an integration of scientific evidence, animal behaviour, and landscape and socio-economic context The difference of views on the killing of wild animals between a former and a sitting Environment Minister of the ruling party — one in favour, the other against — has hit the front pages. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently permitted three States, Uttarakhand, Bihar, and...

-The Hindu Figuring out key parameters on which to measure a State’s performance provides a playbook of best practices for others to follow. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (MGNREGA) aims at “enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” In the financial year...