In past few days we all have seen how rivers in northern india right from beas to sutlej are in spate. This heavy deluge has caused economic loss as well as loss of human life . Is it normal ? Ot it's the climate change ? Let's discuss it .
1 western disturbances and monsoon
July is the season of monsoon . South east monsoon winds carry moisture from arabian sea and bay of bengal and causes rainfall in the indian subcontinent . But catch this time was presence of western disturbances as well . They carry moisture from the mediterranean sea and shed their moisture in northern india . Thus due to both the phenomenons there was an excessive rainfall in the region . So technical reason of such large scale floods is emergence of these two climatic phenomenons simultaneously .
2 climate change
Climate change is the reality which we cant ignore and floods have become normal occurance in every monsoon . Though july is a rainy season but the copious amount of rainfall in just few days is not normal . In addition to that excess warming in hilly areas causes cloudbursts and flashfloods .As per imd north india has experienced 59% of excess rainfall. Hence climate change can't be ruled out which aggravated the current situation .
3 urban planning
We all saw photographs of various towns and cities submerged in water . These incessant rains did test carrying capacity of our city drains but somewhere our planning of cities are to be blamed . In today's time flooding is seen in almost every major cities and towns like bengaluru , mumbai and same was seen in delhi and the popular hill town of kullu . With increase in population the habitats expanded and sometimes quite close to natural water bodies like rivers , lakes and natural drains . In hill stations hotels and eateries are quite common sight near river banks. But when floods occur there is no buffer and hence the flood wreacks havoc in these areas as water need its outlet .
Thus it can be concluded that these floods were triggered by natural reasons but manmade reasons aggravated the situation . This is not happening for the first time and this won't be happening for the last time . It's not just the natural disasters like floods we have to deal with but also it's aftermath . The worst hit are the poor people who are most vulnerable . Along with that such large scale disaster would surely impact inflation in coming times as many paddy fields in punjab and haryana were inundated . Out of all states himachal pradesh has been worst hit . As per official estimates 30 people have lost their lives and economic loss of 300 crores is estimated .
With early warning systems and joint efforts of NDRF ,SDRF and local administarion precautionary measures were taken to minimise loss of life . But we need to understand that climate change is at our doors and hence we need to impliment our policies example - electronic vehicles , better urban planning , proper waste management more rigorously.
It's a native american saying that we don't inherit nature from our ancestors but borrow it from our children . Let's make a collective effort for better and resilient future .
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