Drought News

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A woman wades through floodwaters to collect drinking water near her submerged house in Jorhat, Assam in August 2026. (AP Photo/Parikhit Saikia)

A changing climate is reshaping India’s infectious disease risks

Rupsy Khurana 8 Oct 2026
Banner Image: The Maharashtra government has declared drought in 265 of the state's 358 talukas. Image by Mahendraparikh23 via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

Maharashtra declares drought as El Niño deepens

Kundan Pandey 28 Sep 2026
Rains in central India. Representative image by Ms Sarah Welch via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

El Niño brings drought and extreme rain together

Kundan Pandey 22 Sep 2026
Rama Shankar with his family's cattle in Doda Mafi village. Image by Shivam Bhardwaj.

The grass is greener only on paper

Shivam Bhardwaj 4 Sep 2026
A farmer stands on a parched paddy field near Jammu in 2014. Representative image. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

El Niño brings drought declaration into sharper focus

Simrin Sirur 3 Sep 2026
With its embankment breached and the basin choked with silt, Keshav Yadav’s farm pond remains dry, leaving Yadav without any means to irrigate his Rabi crops after erratic rainfall. Image by Shivam Bharadwaj.

When farm ponds fail to hold water

Shivam Bhardwaj 26 Aug 2026
Vinu A. Muthukuzhi, inspects his plantain farm that suffered massive loss in the recent heavy rainfall and flooding in Kalliyoor, Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala’s Onam festival marred by a weaker monsoon and subsequent crop loss

K. Rajendran 25 Aug 2026
A pond recently dug by the government in Palamu. When Mongabay-India visited in late July, the pond held little water. Image by Ashwini Kumar Shukla.

After decades of drought-proofing, farms still depend on rain

Ashwini Kumar Shukla 6 Aug 2026
The devastating impacts of the famine on people in then Bellary district, Madras, illustrated for The Graphic (a British weekly newspaper) published on October 6, 1877. Illustration by Horace Harral courtesy of National Portrait Gallery via Public Domain.

Volcanoes, El Niño and colonial policies fuelled two deadly famines in India

Karthik Vinod 30 Jul 2026
Cracks appear in Basant Dangi's field in Pathalgada village, where he normally grows a paddy nursery. Image by Vishal Kumar Jain.

Low rainfall delays paddy farming signalling El Niño-induced drought

Vishal Kumar Jain 27 Jul 2026
A buyer bargains with a sugarcane vendor. Representative image. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Rising sugarcane yields coexist with climate, water risks in semi-arid India

Sneha Mahale 23 Jul 2026
A cement naala baandh in Kiraksal constructed in 2017. Image by Vinaya Kurtkoti.

Watershed management improves livelihoods in drought-prone village

Vinaya Kurtkoti 9 Jul 2026
A farmer inspects his destroyed crop of sugarcane following drought in Marathwada region, Maharashtra, in 2016. Representative image. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

Centre identifies over 300 vulnerable districts amid El Niño, weak monsoon fears

Kundan Pandey 25 Jun 2026
Municipal workers rescue fish from a dried lake at Ratanpura in Ahmadabad, Gujarat, during a drought in 2016. Representative image. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

El Niño forecast increases likelihood of weak monsoon and water stress

Phalguni Ranjan 18 Jun 2026
A man exits a foot bridge over a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Guwahati, Assam in 2025. Representative image. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

A strong El Niño demands planning, not panic [Commentary]

Madhavan Nair Rajeevan 3 Jun 2026
Trilokinath glacier valley in Lahaul. Image courtesy of Pushpendra Pandey.

The driest spring in four centuries in the Western Himalayas

Vandana K. 16 Mar 2026
New growth emerging from a Neuracanthus plant following a surface fire, enclosed in Xerocoma, amid charred grassland vegetation. Image by Adittya Dharap.

Cottony coats and comebacks

Anusha Krishnan 24 Feb 2026
Rusted boats lie on the dried-up bed of the Aral sea. Image by Arian Zwegers via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Does the dry bed of the Aral Sea reflect India’s water future? [Commentary]

Tisha Srivastav 12 Jan 2026
According to the PMC, the priority stretch between Sangamwadi and Bund Garden is nearly complete. Image by Stephin Thomas.

As a riverfront plan advances, ecologists warn of damage to floodplains, biodiversity

Stephin Thomas 9 Dec 2025
Lamps being lit during Diwali on the banks of the Ganga in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh in 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Human activity is causing the Ganga to dry at levels never seen before

Simrin Sirur 21 Oct 2025