Coastal seagrass can store more heat-trapping carbon per square mile (kilmometre) than forests can, which means these coastal plants could be part of the solution to climate change, scientists said in a new study.

Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world's oceans, they can hold up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, a global team of researchers reported Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

That is more than twice the 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer a typical terrestrial forest can store.

Floods triggered by heavy rains left two people missing and damaged homes in Northwest China's Gansu province Sunday, local authorities said.

From 10 pm Sunday to 1:30 am Monday, floods battered several counties and districts in the provincial capital of Lanzhou, leaving two people missing in Gucheng village and destroying a single home in Shengou village, according to the provincial government's general office.

Flood waters ravaged a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 19 people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said Sunday.

About 60 other people were missing and rescuers were looking for them across Sar-e-Pul, the capital of a province with the same name, said Sayed Faizullah Sadat, the national disaster director in the area.

Northern Afghanistan gets hit nearly every spring by flash flooding from heavy rains and snow melting off the mountains.

The plan to convert vast swathes of no development zone (NDZ) in the coastal regions of Gorai, Manori and Uttan into a Tourism Development Zone has come in for severe criticism from activists, who have suggested that the belt be opened up for creation of affordable housing instead.

The Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) has written to the Chief Minister, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) commissioner and the principal secretary of the state urban development department about the ‘flawed’ policy that is currently under consideration.

Boston-based Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia has observed that India must consult with co-riparian countries for any project on shared rivers.
The Alliance formed in 1993, came up with the remarks at a meeting held recently at MIT, Cambridge, USA to discuss India's recently revived River Linking Project, according to a message received here.

One more body of the Seti flash flood victim was recovered on Thursday, taking the death toll to 32. The body, which is yet to be identified, was recovered from the Seti river, said Inspector Rabindra Poudel. Meanwhile, a forensic team led by forensic experts Dr Pramod Shrestha and Dr Rijan Shrestha from Teaching Hospital reached Pokhara and started identifying bodies and severed body parts of the flood victims kept in the Regional Hospital, Pokhara. Five bodies and seven severed body parts are yet to be identified.

Guwahati; May 17: A resident of Majuli has sought Assam governor J.B. Patnaik’s intervention to protect the life and property of the people on the river island and rehabilitation of the families displaced during floods. Manoj Kumar Borah had approached Gauhati High Court two years ago to find a way to resolve these problems. Borahmet Patnaik yesterday for 45 minutes and held a discussion on the problems of the river island.

A survey by an NGO revealed that crops on 35,000 acres and 41,000 people were affected in Matiari district during recent breach in Rohri Canal.

The survey, conducted by disaster risk reduction sector of Sindh Agricultural and Forestry workers Coordinating Organisation (Safwco), said crops of cotton, mango orchards and vegetables were submerged on 35,000 acres in the union council of Bhale Dino
Kaka. The breach water also affected 35 villages.

The number of extreme rainstorms - deluges that dump 3 inches or more in a day - doubled in the U.S. Midwest over the last half-century, causing billions of dollars in flood damage in a trend climate advocates link to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

Across the Midwest the biggest storms increased by 103 percent from 1961 through 2011, a study released by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council reported on Wednesday.

‘Master plan for other 56 basins, sub-basins of the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys has also been taken up by the Brahmaputra Board’

GUWAHATI: Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources and Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala said that the Brahmaputra Board, a statutory body under the Ministry of Water Resources, had prepared a master plan for the Brahmaputra and all its tributaries after carrying out necessary survey and investigation, for planned development of the river with due regard to the development of irrigation, power and navigation.