Disaster risk reduction

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta told reporters she was confident the state was “fully geared to fight pollution,” referencing the Centre’s approval of the cloud seeding plan.

Dhaka is warming faster than the rest of the country, and the consequences for public health, productivity, and well-being are growing.

But beyond the immediate destruction, most prominently over Dehradun on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, new reports and expert commentary point to deeper systemic failures – in climate monitoring, disaster preparedness, and infrastructure planning – that are making the Himalayan state increasingly vulnerable.

For Delhi’s nearly 30 million residents, the coming weeks will test whether the city’s multi-pronged strategies can meaningfully reduce the haze that has become synonymous with its winters.

At the heart of the campaign were the fishermen and residents of the Negombo lagoon region – people for whom the wetland is more than land or water; it’s the lifeblood of their daily existence.

In 2024, India experienced extreme weather on 322 days, leading to over 3 400 deaths. The first 90 days of 2025 alone saw 87 days of intense weather events – including floods and heat waves – underscoring an alarming upward trend in disasters.

Combined, malaria and malnutrition constitute a “double health burden” that traps the most vulnerable – especially children under five years of age – in a deadly cycle.

In a significant diplomatic shift prompted by mounting climate risk, Nepal and China have agreed to begin sharing critical cross-border intelligence on glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that threaten lives and livelihoods in the fragile Himalayan region.