-The Hindu This year, the monsoon has been in rumbustious form. It swept in to Kerala on June 1 and then headed off north with surprising rapidity. So much so that the rain-bearing cloud systems covered the whole country by June 16, a process that is typically completed only by around the middle of next month. Moreover, it has rained copiously. Consequently, about three-quarters of the country have received much...
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The untold story from Uttarakhand-Ravi Chopra
-The Hindu While the focus is on pilgrims, nobody is talking about the fate of boys and men who came from their villages in the Mandakini valley to earn during the yatri season It is one week since Uttarakhand's worst disaster in living memory. Flash floods resulting from extremely intense rainfall swept away mountainsides, villages and towns, thousands of people, animals, agricultural fields, irrigation canals, domestic water sources, dams, roads, bridges, and...
More »50 Metro stations at high risk: UN study -Pradeep Thakur
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Lessons have not been learnt from past disasters, it seems. Delhi Metro, which ferries over two million passengers a day, is on a high-risk earthquake and flood zone and may lead to a huge loss of life in case of a disaster, says a recently released UN report on disaster risk reduction. The Global Assessment Report (GAR), released by the United Nations office on disaster risk...
More »Not that Great being an Indian Bustard-Neha Sinha
-The Hindu Unorthodox models of conservation are needed to save this elusive and magnificent big bird "Have you seen the Big Five?" That's the question you will invariably be asked if you visit the East African states. The Big Five, Africa's largest, and thus most prominent, mammals - the lion, the rhino, the leopard, the buffalo and the elephant - have dominated camp fire stories, tourist expectations and the growth of conservation. Across...
More »The kidney paradox
-The Hindu Chronic corruption and lack of affordable access to treatments for serious diseases in the public health system stand exposed in the kidney commerce scandal in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district. Nothing can be a greater irony than the existence of such thriving sale of organs in a State that also has perhaps the best-run programme for donation of kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs by deceased donors. It is no small...
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