Millions of people in western India are suffering their worst drought in more than four decades, with critics blaming official ineptitude and corruption for exacerbating the natural water shortage.

More than 6 million people across Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe are at risk of severe food shortages because of repeated cycles of drought and flooding, the global humanitarian body IFRC sai

Some river levels fluctuated between their highest and lowest levels within the space of four months

Crop-friendly snowfall will be moving from the Northern Plains into the central and eastern Midwest overnight Monday and Tuesday, leaving up to an additional six to eight inches of snow, an agricul

With animals in the Bandipur National Park (BNP) facing hardship due to acute scarcity of water, triggered by a bad drought, the Forest department has started supplying water to the partially dried-up water bodies inside the BNP.

Wild animals, particularly elephant, tiger, deer and bison, are struggling to slake their thirst as there is water only in 15 of the 282 tanks/lakes inside the Bandipur National Park. Acute water shortage has forced several animals to migrate to the backwaters. But, even that region is facing water crisis.

Maharashtra is one of the first states to have regulated its groundwater resources. However, two decades after it introduced a law banning sinking of private borewells or deeptube wells within 500 metres of a public drinking water source, brazen extraction of water continues, even in the 16 drought-hit districts of the state.

This is reflected in the fact that 195 of the state’s 1,531 watersheds lie critically depleted, according to the state’s Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA). Seventy-three of these are ‘overexploited’.

Chandy, team to put the demand before Prime Minister

Kerala, facing a searing drought, will urge the Centre to sanction it a special Rs. 4,000-crore relief package. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his Cabinet colleagues will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the request during their visit to Delhi on Monday and Tuesday.

Speakers at a farmers gathering in Rajshahi on Wednesday said the vast barind track has started facing water crises following depletion of both surface and groundwater resources, reports BSS.

The signs of rising water are everywhere in this seaport city: yellow "Streets May Flood" notices are common at highway underpasses, in low-lying neighborhoods and along the sprawling waterfront.

Fragmentation of landholdings, decreasing crop yield and drought are the major challenges to the agriculture sector in Karnataka, Chief Secretary S V Ranganath has said.

The average landholding has nosedived to 1.55 hectares in 2010-11 from 3.2 hectares in 1970-71. The need of the hour is a technology that can help farmers owning small landholdings survive comfortably, he said on Wednesday.