Environment & Ecology
Climate, biodiversity, pollution control and environmental legislation
Indian Ocean heats up to dangerous levels, putting fish, reefs and livelihoods at risk, warns watchdog
India's ocean monitoring agency (INCOIS) has issued marine heatwave alerts across six ocean basins as of April 20, 2026, with sea surface temperatures crossi...
Govt pushes ethanol blending beyond 20%; vehicle impact remains concern
Following the nationwide E20 mandate (20% ethanol blending in petrol) effective April 1, 2026, the government has initiated consultations with automobile man...
Solar infra helps India meet record 256GW power demand
India's peak electricity demand reached an all-time high of 256.1 GW on April 25, 2026 — the first time the country crossed the quarter-terawatt barrier — dr...
NGT issues notice to Centre over risks from hanging glaciers in central Himalaya
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) took suo motu cognisance on 24 April 2026 of a news report titled "Study Flags Overlooked Danger Posed By Hanging Glaciers ...
Small Hydro Power Development Scheme
The Union Cabinet approved the Small Hydro Power (SHP) Development Scheme for the period FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31, with a total outlay of ₹2,584.60 crore. Th...
Government Clarifies Wheat Production Scenario 2025–26; Crop Remains Resilient Despite Weather Variations
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare described the 2025–26 wheat season as "mixed but resilient," acknowledging localised damage from unseasonal ...
India's wheat production resilient despite setbacks: Agri ministry
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare affirmed that India's wheat output for 2025–26 remains stable despite localised crop damage from unseasonal ...
MoEFCC and NBA launch five-year project to strengthen Grassroots Biodiversity Governance in Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) launched a five-year project titled "Stre...
Climate-resilient farming in the age of extremes
As extreme weather events — droughts, unseasonal rains, heatwaves, and floods — grow more frequent and unpredictable, Indian agriculture faces an existential...
Incremental change: On Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency-III
India is transitioning to the third phase of its Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms — CAFE-III — effective from April 1, 2027, running through Ma...
Centre raises wheat procurement target to 34.5 million tonnes amid erratic weather
The central government raised its wheat procurement target for the 2026-27 Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) by 15 percent — from 30 million tonnes to 34.5 million...
El Nino may return by mid-2026 amid warming seas, says WMO
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has signalled a clear shift in equatorial Pacific conditions: sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) are rising rapidly,...
Rising temperatures put India’s rice farming at risk, says FAO-WMO report
A joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) — titled "Extreme Heat and Agriculture" — has f...
West Asia tensions and oil supply disruption may push Asian economies towards faster renewable shift: Jefferies
A report by financial services firm Jefferies assessed that ongoing tensions in West Asia and the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global oil ...
What is 100% ethanol blending? | Explained
India has intensified its push toward 100% ethanol fuel (E100) for road vehicles and is simultaneously advancing the use of ethanol as a feedstock for Sustai...
Forecast for strong El Nino fans worries about global crops as Iran war bites
Forecasts from multiple international climate agencies point to a strong El Nino event developing in the second half of 2026, with Japan's meteorological age...
India's wheat output likely at 110-120 mn ton in 2025-26 amid weather damage, says Food Secy
India's wheat production for the 2025-26 crop year is projected to come in between 110 and 120 million tonnes, a revision downward from the agriculture minis...
Scaling climate adaptation from policy to grassroots
With COP30 having concluded in Belém (Brazil) and COP31 approaching, the international community faces its first major political test of whether adaptation f...
UP’s Shekha Jheel joins Ramsar List, India nears milestone of 100 sites
Shekha Jheel Bird Sanctuary in Aligarh district, Uttar Pradesh, was designated as a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on April 22, 2026, making it I...
Mitigate arsenic & fluoride contamination in groundwater, NGT tells states
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a directive on April 17, 2026, ordering all state governments to implement measures to mitigate arsenic and fluoride...