-IndiaToday.in Nothing short of a complete overhaul or rethinking the approach towards water bodies is needed if India were to fight its water crisis without paying too heavy price. * Water bodies are important to recharge groundwater and absorb excess rain to prevent flooding * Water bodies in India are fast disappearing triggering drought situations and water shortage * The significance of restoring or reviving water bodies cannot be overemphasised For far too long the...

-Hindustan Times Heavy rains continued across Kerala on Friday, forcing authorities to open all five shutters of the Cheruthoni dam in Idukki for the first time in 40 years. Dams and rivers overflowed, parts of highways collapsed, and homes were swept away in severe flooding in more than half of Kerala on Friday in the third day of heavy downpour that has claimed the lives of 30 people and left nearly 54,000...

-Hindustan Times Whether it is to manage the flood situation of Yamuna or water logging of Kuttanad, we should adopt a similar strategy and promote the “give water its space” concept. Forcing water bodies to give up their space or change their courses, as envisaged in the country-wide river interlinking project will lead to irreversible consequences, learning from the examples before us. The monsoon is an unsettling time in India, with...

-The Hindu The headline in a recent PTI report “Saving 2 tigers gives more value than Mangalyaan”’ was intriguing, since it said that saving two tigers yields a capital benefit of Rs. 520 crores, while Mangalyaan cost us Rs. 450 crores. The headline was both exciting and hurtful. Excited by it, I contacted Professor Madhu Verma of the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, and she shared with me both...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Rain fury continued across the country claiming nine lives in Gujarat and causing flash floods in Odisha, while in Assam the death toll touched 60 on Sunday though the flood situation there has eased. At least nine people have died and over 400 rescued by the National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Air Force as heavy rain lashed many parts of Gujarat in the past two days, leading...