-The Indian Express Known as the region’s “cow hill”, where locals send their old and feeble cattle to graze, the plateau this summer has seen thousands of cows perish on the hill due to starvation. Karauli: The latest political battle in Rajasthan is unfolding on an unusual turf: a denuded hilltop with hundreds of dead cows. The plateau, which spreads beyond Kochar village in eastern Rajasthan, is at the centre of Congress’s...

-The Indian Express Drought poses major setback to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Maharashtra. Pune: Ekurke was a success story that inspired many. In 2013, this village in Osmbanabad district’s Kalamb tehsil built 350 toilets in a short span of one-and-a-half months to end the shame of having to defecate in the open. The concerted efforts by the villagers led to the transformation of their village once “infamously dirty” into one where each...

-The Hindu The way forward may be to not rely only on dams, interlinked rivers, and borewell drilling — but to supplant these with effective water conservation, storage and groundwater recharge For the past one week, The Hindu has explored the multi-faceted crisis of water scarcity that has gripped India this summer, through a daily series titled ‘Last Drop’. The series sought to give our readers a comprehensive understanding of six critical...

-The Times of India HIWARE BAZAR (Ahmednagar): Amid desperate denizens scrounging for water in the drought-affected parts of Maharashtra stands a village which has not felt the need to call a single water tanker for the last 21 years! While other villages in the arid Ahmednagar district are digging borewells even up to 400 feet, the underground water table in Hiware Bazar is so good that the precious commodity is available barely...

-The Times of India Marathwada has seen terrible droughts before. But never before did the two oldest wells in Wadval Nagnath village in Chakur taluka of Latur dry up. These wells have been around over 100 years. About eighty other wells -both old and new -situated in and around Wadval Nagnath, too, have almost dried up. Few borewells are functioning. "The owners have decided not to use the water for their crops...