A fresh round of heavy rains and landslides on Monday dampened the hopes of an early rescue of over 10,000 people who remain stranded in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand.

The 10,000 pilgrims rescued on Saturday brought the total number of people evacuated from rain-ravaged Uttarakhand to 70,000. With heavy rain expected to pummel Uttarakhand starting Monday, the next 24 hours are going to be crucial for rescue teams trying to save around 40,000 pilgrims scattered across Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts.

The toll in the “Himalayan tsunami” rose to 556 dead while thousands of pilgrims were still stranded in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand on Friday.

Fearing a rising death toll in the “Himalayan tsunami” of deluge and destruction, the government has launched a massive rescue and relief operation and claims to have evacuated over 33,192 stranded p

The single piece of good news amid the widespread devastation in the rain-battered state of Uttarakhand on Wednesday was that the revered shrine of Kedarnath, built by Adi Sankara over a thousand year

In 2028, just 15 years away, India is expected to become the world’s most populous country, when it will cross China’s population of 1.45 billion.

There is an alarming increase of cases of lead poisoning across the country. Across our major cities, doctors are expressing concern at this “silent epidemic”.

Taking action on a petition submitted by environmental activists and residents of Dwarka, lieutenant-governor Tejendra Khanna finally intervened and issued orders on Friday to the Delhi Development Authority to expedite the work on revival of the Naya Johad water body. Mr Khanna has set a time frame of one month for all work, including desilting and cleaning of the water body and for the preservation of woodlands around it.

Was the death of three tigers in the premier Corbett Tiger Reserve a case of negligence by the forest officials ?
Three tigers died in quick succession in the Corbett tiger reserve. On May 27, the carcass of a tiger was found at a waterhole in the Dehla range of the park. A second carcass was found on May 29 at Ampokhra range and yet another carcass was found at the Fao range of the Terai west division on June 1.

n Chhattisgarh activist Himanshu Kumar has been on a fast-unto-death from June 1 at Jantar Mantar protesting against the increasing acquisition of huge swathes of forest land by mining companies in Chhattisgarh depriving indigenous tribal communities of a decisive say to their own natural resources.