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Mangrove forests in Florida played a crucial role in reducing property damages during recent hurricanes, saving billions of dollars, according to a new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability on October 14. Conducted by researchers from the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) and East Carolina University (ECU), in collaboration with catastrophe risk modeling firm Moody’s RMS and The Nature Conservancy, the study is the first to quantify the economic benefits of mangroves using industry catastrophe-risk models. The research found that mangroves helped reduce storm surge and property damage by an estimated $725 million during Hurricane Irma in 2017 and $4.1 billion during Hurricane Ian in 2022. In Florida Collier County alone, mangroves provide around $67 mil...

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Thursday that the southwest monsoon has completely withdrawn from the entire country, marking its retreat just a day after the normal date of October 15. Simultaneously, the northeast monsoon has set in over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, south interior Karnataka, and Kerala-Mahe, ushering in a new phase of seasonal rainfall for southern India. This year monsoon began early, reaching Kerala on May 24 the earliest onset since 2009 and covering the entire country by June 29, nine days ahead of schedule. The four-month season from June to September brought 937.2 mm of rainfall, 8% above the long-period average of 868.6 mm. Regionally, the rainfall pattern was uneven. East and northeast India r...

GUWAHATI: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Western Ghats and two of India’s national parks Manas in Assam and Sundarbans in West Bengal among Asia’s ailing natural World Heritage sites, highlighting growing concerns over biodiversity loss and poor ecosystem health. According to IUCN’s latest World Heritage Outlook 4 report, both Manas and Sundarbans have been classified under the “significant concern” category. These transboundary sites extend into Bhutan and Bangladesh respectively. The report assessed 63 natural World Heritage sites across Asia (excluding Arab nations), revealing that only 17% are in “good” condition, 51% are “good with some concerns,” 30% face “significant concern,” and one Indonesia’s Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra is...

DHAKA – At least 16 people were killed and several injured after a massive fire ripped through a garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday, October 14. The disaster has once again laid bare the fragile state of industrial safety in Bangladesh's critical, but highly scrutinized, garment sector. Casualty numbers are expected to rise as search operations continue. Many victims were trapped inside the seven-storey factory as the blaze reportedly preceded by an explosion, quickly spread through piles of fabric, chemicals, and machinery. Safety Lapses and Absconding Owners The inferno broke out around midday on the third floor of the factory building before spreading to a nearby warehouse storing highly flammable materials, including bleaching...

Dushanbe, Tajikistan – While the world major ice fields in Greenland, the Alps, and the Himalayas are rapidly receding, a vast mountain region in Central Asia, including the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan, has seen its glaciers remain surprisingly stable, or even gain mass. A team of international scientists has undertaken a grueling expedition to drill for ancient ice cores, hoping to understand this "Karakoram anomaly" and determine whether its resilience can last. Led by glaciologist Evan Miles, affiliated with the Universities of Fribourg and Zurich, a dozen scientists from Switzerland, Japan, the United States, and Tajikistan, accompanied exclusively by an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer, trekked to the remote Kon-Chukurbashi ice cap near the Chinese border. After four da...

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken suo motu cognisance of a complaint alleging extensive environmental violations, including illegal tree felling and unauthorized construction, by the religious organization Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district. On Tuesday, the principal bench comprising Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi (judicial member) and Dr. Afroz Ahmad (expert member) constituted a joint committee to verify the facts and recommend remedial action. Allegations of Large-Scale Environmental Damage The Tribunal's order was based on a letter petition sent by Seema Kumari, the pradhan of Ghaneta Gram Panchayat, and other local residents. The petition alleges that the RSSB has been illegally expanding its premises in the Paror-Ghaneta-Darang-Balla-D...

NEW DELHI, October 16 2025 – India is home to 22,446 wild elephants, according to the findings of the first-ever nationwide census utilizing DNA-based mark–recapture methodology, a significant scientific milestone in conservation. The Status of Elephants in India report, released today, establishes a new, scientifically robust baseline for the country’s Asian elephant population. While officials caution that the figures are not comparable to previous estimates due to the change in methodology, the findings highlight severe threats from habitat fragmentation across the major elephant landscapes. Western Ghats: The Largest, but Most Fragmented The country's elephant population is clustered in four distinct regions: • Western Ghats: Remains the biggest stronghold with 11,934 eleph...

NEW DELHI – Delhi is poised to record its first significant spell of "poor" air quality this season effectively ending the Capital's four-month-long streak of "satisfactory" or better air, according to forecasts released by the Centre Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS). EWS projections indicate that the Air Quality Index (AQI) is likely to slip into the "poor" category by Tuesday October 14, the first such instance since June 11. The outlook for the subsequent six days shows the air quality is likely to fluctuate between the "poor" and "very poor" categories a troubling forecast just ahead of the Diwali festival. Air Quality Deteriorates Marginally On Monday, the air quality already showed marginal deterioration. The 24-hour average AQI as released by the Central Pollution Con...

LONDON—Microplastics, the tiny remnants shed from everyday items like packaging and car tires, are not just polluting the oceans; they are lodged deep inside the human body in our blood, lungs, placentas, and even our brains. Scientists are now racing to understand the true impact of this pervasive contamination, with early research suggesting links to neurological changes and digestive diseases. The startling reality is that plastic is now an intimate part of our internal environment. One study cited in the report estimated the human brain alone could contain as much as five grams of microplastic, or roughly a teaspoon. Meddling with the Microbiome The latest concerns center on the gut. Dr. Christian Pacher-Deutsch of the University of Graz in Austria revealed new findings at the...

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—The G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction concluded its meeting on October 13, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, with a strong commitment to global resilience and the adoption of key principles for disaster investment. G20 Ministers unanimously adopted the Ministerial Declaration, “Resilience of All,” which emphatically states that resilience must be central to sustainable development, economic stability, and shared prosperity. The declaration calls for strengthened national and global action to: • Expand early warning systems. • Promote resilient infrastructure. • Scale up nature-based solutions. In a move to improve global financing for disaster readiness, the Ministers also endorsed the Voluntary High-Level Principles for In...