Floods and falling resilience

Punjab is witnessing massive floods that have hit hundreds of villages and towns. Homes have been destroyed, crops washed away, and roads and bridges have been damaged.

Floods, landslides, cloudbursts, and other natural calamities have ravaged large parts of North and North-Western India over the last few weeks. Punjab is witnessing massive floods that have hit hundreds of villages and towns. At least 30 people have died and assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees have been lost. Homes have been destroyed, crops washed away, and roads and bridges have been damaged. Most rivers, including Ravi and Beas, are in spate and dams are overflowing. A fierce monsoon is still lashing the state and the region. The early part of the monsoon was beneficial for the state and the paddy crops, sown then, were expected to yield a good harvest. But the floods have destroyed thousands of acres of crops.

Haryana has also been affected, though not as badly as Punjab. Many of its villages, roads, and other assets have been hit. Himachal Pradesh has seen landslides, cloudbursts, and other disasters in the past few weeks. Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir have been similarly affected. The Yamuna is rising and Delhi is under a constant flood threat. Many people have been displaced across the states. Economies that largely depend on tourism, agriculture, and small businesses are disrupted. Rescue and relief operations are ongoing in Punjab and rehabilitation and recovery efforts are continuing in other states. Politics, as usual, gets in the way and a blame game is on between the affected states ruled by the Opposition parties and the Centre. States including Punjab have sought from the Centre financial packages for relief, reconstruction, and rehabilitation. This is the time to look past political interests and prioritise aid to help the affected rebuild their lives.

The frequency and intensity of these disasters present a compelling case for the administrators to switch to a preventive approach. For decades, planning has failed to adapt in accordance with the natural features and the specific needs of regions. The infrastructure developed and promoted for religious tourism in Uttarakhand points to policies misaligned with the environmental frailties of the region. The affected states are part of the vulnerable Himalayan and sub-Himalayan ecosystems. Land-use and water management plans have traditionally done harm to the environment. Deforestation and encroachment of forests, destruction of rivers and water bodies, and blocking of the natural courses of water have all led to the spate of disasters the region is witnessing now. The impact of climate change is known and has been deliberated on extensively but action on the ground has remained woefully inadequate.