Deluge despite deficit
This year, floods have occurred even in areas that are arid or have received less than normal rainfall. As erratic weather events become more common with climate change, India urgently needs to formulate a national flood management policy
‘Many seismic gaps in Himalayas capable of producing powerful earthquakes’
In an interview to Kundan Pandey, Supriyo Mitra, associate professor with the Department of Earth Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, explains how we came to understand earthquakes and why trying to predict them is not a useful scientific goal
‘There will be a day when we will be able to predict quakes’
Enough strain has accumulated in the Nepal region to cause a great earthquake. But how big it is going to be and when it is going to occur is a big question, says Vineet K Gahalaut, scientist with National Geophysical Research Institute of CSIR, in an email interview with Kundan Pandey. Gahalaut also elaborates on the gaps in understanding and predicting earthquakes in the Himalayan region …
‘We know where earthquakes can strike, but never when’
Mike Searle, lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University and senior research fellow in Worcester College, Oxford, tells Anupam Chakravartty how seismologists have been able to locate earthquakes more precisely than ever before
`I did not have a government for 36 hours'
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah pleaded helplessness as the seat of his government went under water and his ministers and officials were marooned. As extreme weather events become more frequent and natural drainage systems collapse due to urbanisation, Indian cities have to be ready to deal with urban floods
