State of the Climate in Asia 2024
<p>The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing
Landslides
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Worried By Secondary Disaster, China To Blast Lake
Hundreds of troops carrying explosives trekked through a quake-devastated area in southwest China on Sunday, attempting to reach a "quake lake" that threatens a secondary disaster. Concerned by a steep rise in the water level of a giant lake at Tangjiashan, authorities want to blast a hole in the barrier before it bursts and causes a flashflood. Thousands have been evacuated below the lake as a precaution. Also on Sunday, state television reported an 80-year-old partially paralysed man had been pulled alive from rubble, 266 hours after the 7.9 magnitude quake hit.
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Chinese Engineers Move To Empty "Quake Lakes"
Chinese engineers are starting to make headway against lakes that have formed behind landslides, threatening yet more devastation on the earthquake-stricken valleys downstream. Last week's big tremor changed the landscape of northern Sichuan province, as mountainsides were obliterated along the Longmenshan fault. In Hongguang, in northeastern Sichuan, the earthquake caused both sides of a valley to slide, burying three villages and 900 people. The Qingzhu River is trapped behind. "The mountains merged," said Gao Xiao, who barely escaped a landslide that roared past her house.
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Big trouble
In May 2005, the Arunachal Pradesh government filed an application in the Supreme Court regarding the Subansiri (Lower) project, expressing serious concerns about large storage dams: "
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Reservoir of dams
Arunachal Pradesh is awarding hydroelectric projects to private companies at the breakneck speed of one every nine days without proper scrutiny. The government says hydroelectricity is the key to the state
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Grow seabuckthorn: For greening cold desert Himalayas
In this paper, the role of "seabuckthorn" in greening the cold deserts of Himalayas in terms of its various uses like medicinal values, nutritional/food values and controlling soil erosion/landslides has been detailed.
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Floods take heavy toll
Floods took a heavy toll in several districts with several deaths reported and nearly 8,000 families displaced while cutting off access roads in many areas due to heavy flooding and obstructions by landslides. 7,860 families (33,408 persons) were reported displaced in Colombo, Kalutara, Ratnapura, Puttalam, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle, Gampaha and Kegalle. Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishard Badiudeen has directed the District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries of the relevant districts to carry out immediate relief work.
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Landslide threat in eight districts
The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) yesterday warned the public to be vigilant on sudden landslides that could occur in eight districts Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Kalutara, Galle and Matara as a result of torrential rains.
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Fall in groundwater level may cause landslide in city
The groundwater level in Dhaka is dipping because of a massive extraction of water from underground, according to a recent study. Experts said that the groundwater level was declining by up to three metres every year, posing a threat of landslide. According to a report,
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Meena focuses on landslides
Kalimpong: DGHC administrator B.L. Meena has agreed to take up landslide prevention work in the hills on a priority basis. He, however, cautioned that it would take time to accomplish the onerous task. After meeting representatives of NGOs like Citizen Rights Forum, Kalimpong, and Save The Hills, Meena said the Bengal government has already identified roads, drinking water, rural electrification, education and health as priority areas, and landslide prevention would be added to the list.
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Weather beaten
<img src="../files/images/20080415/dot.gif" align="centre">Extreme cold, ice and snow in 20 provinces of southern China since January have damaged crops of rapeseed, vegetables and fruits, along with some 190,000 hectares (ha) of winter wheat.<br> <br> <img src="../files/images/20080415/dot.gif" align="centre">150,000 ha of rice fields were destroyed by a cold spell in Vietnam.<br>