Monsoon and trail of destruction

States should plan to deal with challenges

Excessive monsoon rainfall has left a big trail of destruction across many states, with Maharashtra bearing the brunt of the impact. Karnataka’s northern parts have been badly affected by rains and floods and attendant problems. Other states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have seen high levels of monsoon activity. Every part of the country that has been covered by the monsoon has suffered loss and damage. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the southern peninsula has seen 29% more rainfall than normal till now. Some areas in Maharashtra experienced record rainfall. Normal life has been thrown out of gear in many places and roads, buildings, bridges and other constructions have been destroyed. Crops have been lost and factories damaged. There are reports of loss of lives and livelihood from everywhere.

It is now accepted that extreme weather events, which have become common, are caused by climate change. India has seen abnormal rainfall and more cyclones in the last few years. The increased frequency of cyclonic activity is thought to be a reason for excessive rainfall. The extreme natural phenomena will increase as no substantial measures are being taken to control climate change. But it would be wrong to blame climate change for all the havoc. Even without the threat of climate change, our record of handling natural calamities has been poor. Administrations have often been found wanting in dealing with rains and floods. The country needs to be better equipped to face such eventualities both in the short term and in the long term. It is important to bring immediate relief to victims and to take quick measures to put the broken facilities back in operation. Disaster relief plans should be improved and updated to meet the new requirements. Some states like Odisha have done well to put in place such plans after learning from experience. Each state will have a different challenge and so plans should be made to deal with the specific situations that are likely to arise there.

The formulation of long-term plans is equally important. It is time to reorient development projects, infrastructure building and other construction plans in such way as to tackle the impact of climate change. Just as plans are made to face earthquakes or tsunamis, special planning has to be made to meet the climate change threat. They will have to include changes in urban planning, architecture, designs of roads and sewers, crop plans and many other matters. Many of the present practices which have done harm to ecology will have to abandoned and new attitudes and practices have to be adopted. Such changes cannot wait, since the climate has already started changing. But our priorities do not reflect the new imperatives.