Heatwaves and lightning have officially been recognised as natural calamities eligible for relief under the State and National Disaster Response Funds, Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, told Parliament on August 4.

The decision to notify heatwaves and lightning as disasters follows the recommendations of the 16th Finance Commission, which had recommended their inclusion “considering the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events arising from climate change,” Rai said.

Rai also revealed that the total number of heatstroke cases since March 1, 2026 had reached 4,853, based on data from 51,000 National Heat-Related Illness and Death Surveillance reporting units. Telangana recorded the most number of cases (915), followed by West Bengal (733), Chhattisgarh (660), and Andhra Pradesh (540). Only 20 deaths were recorded over the same period, with the highest number – 11 deaths – reported from Maharashtra.

The SDRF and NDRF funds can be used for response, relief, recovery, and reconstruction purposes linked to the notified natural disasters. Long-term preparedness and capacity building activities, however, will have to be paid for from state and national disaster mitigation funds.

Experts have long called for the inclusion of heatwaves in the list of notified disasters so relief is systematically provided to vulnerable and exposed populations. Before the nationwide notification, only a handful of states had notified heatwaves as disasters within their own jurisdictions, such as Haryana, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.

Lightning, on the other hand, is responsible for the largest number of deaths due to any disaster reported in India. Deaths due to lightning have consistently increased since 1975, data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows.

Other natural calamities notified by the central government include cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanches, cloudburst, pest attack, and frost and cold waves.

Banner image: A woman cools herself off with an ice pack during a heat wave in Banda, Uttar Pradesh. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Over 60 civil rights groups have condemned the detention of Assam-based environmental and Indigenous rights activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act, calling it a clear “attempt to punish and vilify activists for exercising their constitutional right to protest.” Doley led protests against a five-star luxury resort proposed to be built within the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site housing the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceros.

Doley was detained under the National Security Act (NSA) on July 30, one day after securing bail from a sessions court. The NSA provides for preventive detention to maintain public order. Rights groups have called it a way to “to continue his unjust incarceration.”

Apart from the revocation of the NSA, the groups have demanded an independent investigation into police excesses against protesters, the release of all activists associated with land struggles in Assam, and a full, transparent disclosure of land allotments and tourism projects proposed in the National Park.

The luxury hotel is being developed by a Hyatt-linked company, Juniper Hotels, on land leased to them by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation. The Hyatt Group has since distanced itself from the project. Indigenous tea tribes facing eviction have petitioned the Gauhati High Court alleging the land for the project was forcibly acquired from them.

“Governments cannot be permitted to convert dissent and disagreement over development policy into questions of national security. Adivasi and Indigenous communities asserting their rights over land and for protection of the environment and natural resources, are not enemies of the nation,” the statement by rights groups says.

Doley was arrested on July 12 for “masterminding” a demonstration against the project on June 28, and was accused of attacking police personnel. A sessions court granted him bail on July 29, finding no evidence of violence against police, and on the contrary observing that the notice for his arrest was served belatedly.

“In matters where ecological preservation intersects with indigenous survival, the standard apparatus of criminal law cannot be used to suppress local anxieties. True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them,” the bail order said. The next day, the Assam government imposed the NSA on Doley, which allows an accused to be held without trial or formal charges for up to 12 months.

The NSA notice claims that Doley violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) by engaging in “suspicious foreign transactions.”

“The use of the NSA against Doley is part of a growing pattern of BJP governments weaponising extraordinary laws to silence dissent. Similar attempts have been witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, where the NSA was invoked against labour activists protesting against exploitative working conditions in Noida,” senior Congress leader and former union environment minister Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

Several environmental NGOs have faced FCRA cancellation or suspension for opposing development projects in recent years.

Banner image: A tiger crosses a road in Kaziranga NP. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

A recent survey has found evidence of a significant smooth coated-otter population in Mettur dam and Kaveri river stretches of Salem district in Tamil Nadu. Local fishers and residents reported the presence of more than 1,000 otters in the region.

Otters are semi-aqautic mammals found in rivers, wetlands, and mangroves. Their sleek bodies and webbed feet make them expert swimmers and efficient predators of fish and other aquatic animals, helping regulate prey populations and maintain ecosystem health. They also have whiskers that are sensitive.

Of the 13 global otter species, three are found in India. The smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) is the most widely distributed, found in all major river systems south of the Himalayas. The Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the world’s smallest otter species, lives in high-elevation streams of the Western Ghats, the Himalayan foothills, and parts of Northeast India. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is more elusive and solitary than the other two, and is found in the Himalayas through to the northeast, as well as parts of the Western Ghats and central India.

Population estimates for otters in India are difficult to determine, given how little the species has been studied. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the smooth-coated otter is listed as vulnerable, based on ongoing population declines driven by habitat loss and hunting pressure. The Asian small-clawed otter is also listed as vulnerable, while the Eurasian otter is classified as near threatened. In India, all three otter species are protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Otters face multiple pressures, including river pollution, dam construction that alters river systems, and conflict with fisherfolk. The greatest threat, however, is poaching for fur and body parts.

In an earlier story that Mongabay-India published in 2024, Katrina Fernandez, director of Wild Otters Research and co-author of a 2016 TRAFFIC report, said, “The otters are relentlessly hunted for their body parts. In the 2000s, otter skins made up around 30 percent of the fur trade in India, of which China was the largest consumer.”

Read more about otters in our stories on filming an otter family on the Kaveri, community-based otter conservation in Maharasthra, and poaching pressures in the northeast.

Banner image: Smooth-coated otters. Image by Anirnoy via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Climate change and land use changes could significantly increase landslide susceptibility and risk across Karnataka’s Western Ghats by 2050, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. The modelling study evaluates future landslide susceptibility and risk by incorporating projected changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and rainfall patterns under different climate scenarios.

The research covers around 45,000 square kilometres across seven districts of Karnataka, including Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga, a region that has recorded more than 1,200 rainfall-triggered landslides.

Unlike conventional assessments that assume landslide-causing factors remain constant over time, the researchers incorporated projected changes in rainfall and land use under four Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios. Using machine learning, they combined these projections to identify future landslide hotspots and assess risks to people and infrastructure, making this one of the first future-oriented landslide assessments for the region.

The authors note that the intensity and frequency of fatal landslides in the Western Ghats are increasingly influenced by human-induced land use changes and climate change, making it essential to understand how these factors may evolve in the coming decades. They emphasise that susceptibility maps they developed identify areas most likely to experience landslides, while risk maps combine susceptibility with exposure to highlight locations where landslides could result in socioeconomic losses. Such assessments could inform infrastructure development, land use planning and disaster risk reduction.

The findings project a significant increase in rainfall intensity and urban development by 2050, leading to higher landslide susceptibility and risk across the study area. The greatest increases are expected along major transport corridors and densely populated parts of Uttara Kannada, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts. According to the authors, the results demonstrate the combined influence of changing rainfall patterns and land use on future landslide hazards and provide valuable inputs for climate-resilient land use planning and disaster risk reduction strategies in the Western Ghats.

Banner image: A house left in ruins following a massive landslide in Wayanad, Kerala. Representative image by Divya Kilikar/Mongabay.

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

Tiger stripes are unique, like human fingerprints. No two tigers have the same stripes, a trait that helps researchers monitor the species’ population. In India — home to 75% of the world’s wild tigers — such monitoring plays a crucial role in conservation efforts.

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are the largest of all big cat species, and apex predators. They have a distinctive reddish-orange yellow coat, and a muscular build. Tigers can survive in a wide range of habitats, including mangrove swamps, forests and grasslands. As a solitary and territorial animal, the tiger relies on its strength to hunt its prey, and is vital to the health of entire ecosystems.

Central India holds about 40% of the country’s wild tigers, with recent estimates placing the population at around 3,682 individuals. In 1972, the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) was declared the national animal of India.

In India, tigers are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, giving it the highest level of protection. In 2006, the act was amended to provide for constituting the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for strengthening tiger conservation.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Species, tigers are endangered, which means they face a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Despite tiger populations having stabilised in the past few years, they continue to face significant threats such as shrinkage of tiger habitat, biotic interference in habitat and hunting of prey animals. Poaching for illegal wildlife trade and conflict with humans further threatens their survival.

In an earlier story that Mongabay-India published in October 2025, Pallavi Ghaskadbi, a wildlife biologist and postdoctoral researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, said, “Tigers need connected landscapes. Protecting and restoring forest corridors between reserves is not just a long-term goal but essential for dispersing tigers right now.”

Read more about tiger movement across forest corridors in central India, and watch this video on what it is like living side-by-side with Bengal tigers.

Banner image: Tiger cubs sport their striped coats. Image by Brian Gratwicke via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

In July, four Malabar pied hornbills were spotted near agricultural fields along the Muyyam river in Kannur district, Kerala, a first for the area. The sighting was considered a marvel given that the species is rarely spotted outside dense forests. Another hornbill species, the Indian grey hornbill, has been breeding successfully in Gujarat’s Gir National Park, where 40 individuals was translocated in 2021.

Despite these instances, hunting and other threats continue to loom over the hornbills in India. In June, the forest department arrested three people in connection with the hunting of a protected hornbill in Assam’s Tinsukia district, highlighting continued pressure on the species.

Hornbills (family Bucerotidae) are birds found largely in the tropics of sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. They are easily recognised by their long, curved bills topped with a casque. The birds nest in the natural hollows of high-canopy trees, where females seal themselves inside tree cavities during breeding. Hornbills are often known as ‘farmers of the forest’ due to their propensity to consume fruits and disperse seeds far and wide.

India is home to nine hornbill species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Species, some, such as the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) and Malabar grey hornbill (Ocyceros griseus) are listed as vulnerable. The Malabar pied hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus) is near threatened with a declining population, while the Indian grey hornbill (Ocyceros birostris) population remains relatively stable.

Most hornbill species in India are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, granting them the highest level of protection. However, hornbills still face growing threats from deforestation and habitat fragmentation.

In a report that Mongabay-India published in December 2019, K.H. Amitha Bachan, a researcher and consultant to Kerala Forest Department, said, “A healthy population of hornbills signifies a healthy ecosystem. So the hornbill conservation measures in the region [Kerala] are helping comprehensive protection of the environment of the Western Ghats stretch.”

Read more about ongoing efforts to understand hornbill ecology in the Western Ghats, India’s first hornbill-focussed conservation centre, and how a citizen science project is gathering data on hornbills.

Banner image: A great hornbill carries food to her nest. Image by Angadachappa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).