Number of forest hotspots rises in Indonesia
Jakarta, March 29 (IANS) A satellite observation on Tuesday detected that the number of forest hotspots in Indonesia has risen to 40 from 13 on March 18, with most of them in Sumatra island, an…
Wildlife
Global warming hits Arctic sea ice wintertime extent
Washington, March 29 (IANS) Arctic sea ice appears to have reached a record low winter-time maximum extent for the second year in a row, according to NASA scientists. The new record low follows record high…
Sunny Tuesday morning in Delhi
New Delhi, March 29 (IANS) It was a sunny Tuesday morning here with the minimum temperature recorded at 18.6 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average, the weather office said. “The sky would remain…
Massive dust storm in Kathmandu; many injured, airport shut
By Anil Giri Kathmandu, March 28 (IANS) A massive dust storm swept through the Kathmandu Valley on Monday, due to which at least half a dozen people were injured, flights were held up for an…
Greenland melting linked to shrinking Arctic sea ice
New York, March 28 (IANS) The disappearance of Arctic Sea ice due to massive climate change is causing the surface of Greenland’s melt area to increase, thereby fuelling a steep rise in the sea-level, finds…
Storm Katie forces flights away from London
London, March 28 (IANS) Storm Katie bringing gusts of up to 105 mph or about 170 km an hour battered England and Wales, forcing many flights to be diverted from airports and major bridges to…
Fire in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans forest
Dhaka, March 28 (IANS) A fire has swept through Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and one of the last remaining habitats for tigers, a Bangladeshi official said on Monday. Saidur Rahman, a divisional forest…
UN goal on global temperature unrealistic: Study
New York, March 28 (IANS) The historic agreement reached at last year’s UN conference in Paris to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels…
Vidya Balan starts shooting for ‘Kahaani 2’ in West Bengal
Mumbai, March 28 (IANS) Actress Vidya Balan has started shooting for the upcoming second instalment of the Hindi mystery thriller film “Kahaani”. The “Paa” actress is shooting in Kalimpong, a hill station in the Indian…
Human impact affects Earth’s global energy flow
London, March 28 (IANS) The impact that human beings have made on the Earth in terms of production and consumption of natural resources has formed a ‘striking new pattern’ in the planet’s global energy flow,…
Micro-sanctuaries can help blackbuck survive in urban landscape
Bengaluru, March 28 (IANS) Providing wildlife refuges even in the form of small protected areas in the increasingly urbanised landscape can help hoofed mammals, including blackbuck, survive, Indian researchers have found. Yarlagadda Chaitanya Krishna from…
Clear Monday morning in Delhi
New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) It was a pleasant Monday morning here with the minimum temperature recorded at 16.5 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, the weather office said. The sky would remain…
500,000 ponds being built in rural areas: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File Photo: IANS) New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) With two successive years of poor monsoon, the rural job guarantee scheme will be used for asset creation in rural areas, especially for…
17 Indian explorers spellbound by Antarctica
By Fakir Balaji Bengaluru, March 27 (IANS) Seventeen young Indians have returned from Antarctica with breath-taking stories of its icebergs, icy winds, weather and inhabitants – penguins, seals, whales and sharks. “It’s an out of…
Watershed programme in Tirunelveli brings back people to farming
By Venkatachari Jagannathan Tirunelveli, March 27 (IANS) Twenty-three-year-old G. Nelson Chinnadurai decided to handle the tilling machine and toil on the family’s 3.5 acre dry land in Karisalpatti panchayat in Tirunveli district instead of handling…
Singapore returns to ‘Car-Free Sunday’ for second run
Singapore, March 27 (IANS) Cyclists, walkers and joggers took to the roads yet again as Singapore’s Car-Free Sunday returned for its second run with extended hours and routes. Under the initiative, planned for every last…
Pleasant Sunday morning in Delhi
New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) It was a pleasant Sunday morning in the national capital, with the minimum temperature recorded at 19.5 degrees Celsius, the weather office said. The sky would remain clear throughout the…
Infosys to give biofuel stoves in Karnataka district
Bengaluru, March 26 (IANS) Software major Infosys on Saturday unveiled a project for distributing 43,000 bio-fuel cook stoves over the next nine months to 21,500 families in Karnataka’s Koppal district. “The project will be implemented…
Hong Kong residents turn to mountain springs for drinking water
Hong Kong, March 26 (IANS) Residents of some of Hong Kong’s public housing complexes are turning to mountain springs for drinking water following a scandal over water tainted with lead, authorities said on Saturday. People…
Honeybees ring ‘alarm’ signals to encode predator danger
New York, March 26 (IANS) Honeybees have the potential to use vibrational “stop signals” to warn their mates about dangers from predators attacking foragers or the nest, finds an interesting study. Scientists found that an…