-PTI Washington: One third of the world may be at increased risk of drought by 2100 as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil, a new study has warned. Increasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone, researchers said. Much of concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections, but higher...

-Live Mint Inefficient government relief is reason to allow access to alternatives The increased probability of an El Nino weather pattern has already begun to rustle up fears about how a bad monsoon could hurt a sluggish Indian economy. The concerns are valid even though the economy is less dependent on agriculture than before and reservoir levels this Summer are quite comfortable. The lessons of previous El Nino episodes in 2002...

-The Telegraph   Bottle gourd shells, used to make traditional musical instruments like sitar and tanpura, are no longer grown by the farmers in Howrah, reports Amrita Ghosh West Bengal: Its not without reason that "shader lau..." is the most popular folk song in parts of rural Bengal, including Howrah. "Lau" or bottle gourd, as the folk song goes, turns a man into a vagrant as he eats its base and its top...

-The Hindu   Despite having Dhamanguda minor irrigation project, they could not access water from it Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Politicians are not the popular lot among the poor Adivasi voters holding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job cards in Adilabad district. As they feel that political leaders are responsible for their present pitiable state of utter poverty. "It's been ten years since the Dhamanguda minor irrigation was built, but we...

-The Business Standard Hailstorms may cause Rs 12k-cr crop damage, El Niño a bigger worry India's hope rally will be at risk if El Niño actually strikes this year. Even if a reformist government comes to power in May, global weather forecasts seem to suggest India is faced with the prospect of an erratic rainfall, as a result of the waters of the Pacific Ocean warming (known as the El Niño effect). It...