The State Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday declared Kerala as a drought-affected State following a review of the rainfall received during the two monsoon seasons this year and also field-level reports, which spoke of the impending crop loss and drinking water scarcity.

The authority, with the Chief Minister in the chair, met at the conference hall in the Assembly and decided to put each district in charge of a Minister to immediately assess the ground-level situation everywhere and decide on the steps that should be taken to lessen the intensity of the blow that was in store for the State during the summer months ahead.

This is sounds like crisis.

Alarmed by this year’s scanty rainfall and the drying up of water reserves in several parts of the State, the office of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has forwarded a recommendation to the State government to this effect.

The scarce northeast monsoon has failed to make up for the shortfall in the southwest spell during the past two years. The southwest monsoon’s share of rainfall this year was the lowest in the last seven years.

Sea-dwelling fossil shells reveal 60,000-year-old link relating to climate change

Link dating back to 60,000 years between sea surface temperature of Northeast Indian Ocean (NEIO) and North Atlantic climate oscillations, probably through ocean atmospheric connection, was found by researchers. In a study on oxygen isotopes deposited in fossil shells in the ocean sediment through AMS radiocarbon dating, it was also found that the Indian monsoon was much more intense 6,000-8,000 years ago than the present period. In the study carried out by scientists from CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute here, researchers from the School of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University and the School of Earth Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China collaborated in dating the fossils.

The long-anticipated meteorological satellite INSAT-3D will be launched in the third quarter of 2013, the government today said.

Poor rain during the initial part of this year’s southwest monsoon and its subsequent impact on kharif farm output has pulled down growth in agriculture and allied sectors in the second quarter to

The problem of piracy in the Indian ocean is hampering the collection of accurate water surface temperatures by international weather forecasting agencies that indirectly affects India’s long-range

The Indian monsoon is likely to fail more often in the next 200 years threatening food supplies, unless governments agree how to limit climate change, a study showed on Tuesday.