The authors in this paper present a factual and a brief review of the extreme weather events that occurred in India during the last 100 years (1991-2004). The socio-economic impacts of the extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, cyclones, hail storm, thunderstorm, heat and cold waves have been increasing due to large growth of population and its migration towards urban

South Asian emissions of fossil fuel SO2 and black carbon increased

The paper describes the effect of rains on vegetal cover, different traditional practices and soil properties in the dry and monsoon period. Seven landuse systems i.e. open pine forests, tea plantation, rainfed agriculture, degraded land, grassland, recently restored site and a bare land were identified in the Bhetagad watershed of the Central Himalaya.

Flood hazard in a basin depends upon the hydrological response of the upstream basin area. The upstream basin area may produce different amounts of run-off for a given rainfall based on its hydrologic response. The present communication shows the importance of drainage network characteristics in understanding the hydrologic response of a basin. The study is carried out through Geomorphic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph analysis, wherein Horton's morphometric ratios were used to define the drainage network. A floodprone river basin in north Bihar plains has been selected as a study area.