-The Hindu Centre mulling alternative crops The Union Government is looking at the possibility of replacing rice crop in Punjab and Haryana with alternative crops such as pulses, fodder and oilseeds that help in nitrogen fixation. The Water-intensive rice cultivation over the years has become unsustainable in these two States and the Water table has fallen to precarious levels. Giving this information to members of Parliament’s Consultative Committee for his Ministry, Agriculture Minister...

-The Telegraph The Union environment ministry has raised concerns over the proposed power plant on Nayachar island, casting a cloud on the Rs 8,600-crore investment proposal by NRI businessman Prasoon Mukherjee. At a meeting earlier this month with Bengal government officials, an expert appraisal committee under the central ministry asked the state to come up with a revised environment protection plan. Handing over a 100-page dossier prepared by a group of professionals, chaired...

-PTI Over one lakh people are reeling under the impact of the third wave of floods in six districts of Assam as the rising Water of the Brahmaputra River inundated vast areas of human habitation and cropland. The Brahmaputra River at Nematighat in Jorhat district and Dhansiri River at Numaligarh in Golaghat district, Gai Nadi in Dhemaji district and Singora in Lakhimpur district, besides Jia Bhoroli in Lower Assam's Sonitpur district were...

-The Hindu “Direct sowing is the way out in times of delayed Water release and scarcity’’ As acres and acres of untilled land dot the tail-end of the Delta this year, there lays a tilled stretch of some 20 acres in Madapuram in Thiruthuraipoondi, bordering Nagapattinam, in the first and the only rains that lashed a few days ago. Seventy-six-year-old Oysul Karunai awaits the second spell to re-till his fields and broadcast the...

-The Hindu As many as 250 people affected by the Omkareshwar dam project have been standing in waist-deep Water since Saturday night, even as the Water level continues to rise. The oustees announced their jal satyagraha protest last month at Ghogalgaon village in the East Nimar region against the Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to raise the Water level in the dam from 189 to 193 metres. The 520-MW Omkareshwar project is one...