-Livemint.com Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, whose report on Western Ghats was rejected by the Kerala government, on what caused the Kerala floods and how the rebuilding process should be carried out Ernakulam (Kerala): Submitted seven years ago on 31 August 2011, ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s report on the biodiverse Western Ghats—a portion of which falls in Kerala—had warned that the combination of massive ecological destruction and extreme weather events trigger disaster. His words proved...

-The Economic Times In the afternoon on August 15, Kollam district collector S Karthikeyan received a call from his counterpart in Pathanamthitta, P B Nooh. He requested five dinghies to be sent from rescue operations in flooded areas in his district. It had been raining incessantly for several days all over Kerala. Most of the reservoirs in the state had to be opened in the previous couple of days, leading to floods...

-The Hindu There should be space for greater storage of water in reservoirs before the onset of monsoon In the aftermath of any tragedy, people struggle to comprehend what happened and how to cope. Kerala is no different. With the floodwaters finally receding, a number of experts and politicians have stated various possible reasons for the tragedy. Some have cited ill-thought-out development plans that have affected the sustainability of the Western Ghats,...

-The Times of India THANE: The devastation caused by the floods in Kerala could be a preview to a similar disaster in-waiting in several cities and town of Maharashtra, where a combination of heavy rains, poor dam management and builder-driven encroachments in the flood control line could lead to a repeat of July 26, 2005, experts claimed. Maharashtra, with a total of 3,264 dams, could be highly vulnerable to devastating floods and...

-The Hindu Business Line A new study has suggested that the government must consider changes occurring due to climate change while planning new hydropower projects. The generation of hydropower from top seven hydropower projects in India has suffered due to climate variability in the past six decades. Future projected climate change may also hit reservoir operation for power generation from these projects, says the study done by researchers from the Indian Institute...