questions floating in the flood

Akhilesh Aryandu

On the advice of environmental and meteorological experts and on the suggestions of climate change experts, it is not seen that the central and state governments have shown any will to solve the formidable problem of floods. This time too, there was a scene of devastation due to rain in all the areas of the country. In states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, there was a lot of loss of life and property in incidents like cloudburst, breaking of mountains and landslides. On the other hand, in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, the intensity of rain was shocking.

It rained for fifteen days in twelve districts including Kota, Baran, Jodhpur of Rajasthan. This destroyed the Kharif crop. This year, rain-like devastation is wreaking havoc in most parts of the country, it seems that now the situation arising out of rain has changed a lot in many cases than before.

It is to be understood that the way the floods wreaked havoc in the hill states and engulfed thousands of people and lakhs of animals on sight, now they are afraid of the changing season cycle. Incidents of landslides and cloudbursts were reported in Himachal. But this time the highest number of cloudbursts occurred in that Uttaranchal, where it used to happen rarely before. In the past, such incidents did not create panic among the people, forcing people to leave their ancestral homes and flee to safer places. Similarly, after the monsoon, many districts of Uttar Pradesh were prone to floods and so far many people have lost their lives in accidents due to floods, lightning and rain.

The question is whether these natural disasters should be taken as the result of climate change or should we take some concrete steps to combat them? In most areas of Maharashtra, where there was a famine situation for the last several years, the rains broke records. A similar situation has become in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam. In Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and more or less Madhya Pradesh, floods destroy lakhs of people every year. There is massive loss of people and money.

Every year, as soon as the monsoon arrives, the low-lying areas get flooded. Money is shed like water in the name of relief from the government treasury. Where does this allocated amount go in the flood, no one is asking. Every year it is said that there should be a permanent solution to the flood, but it is never implemented. The problem of floods gets aggravated due to lack of coordination between the central and state governments. The ‘relief amount’ also increases in the same proportion. But despite the huge loss of public and money, the government solution is done in the same tradition, so that no permanent solution can be found for this problem. The more surprising thing is that the governments talk about a permanent solution by implementing the opinion of the flood management experts of the country, but never seem to implement their suggestions. As a result of this, every year there is a flood and then there is the same ruckus.

The problem of floods is not new in India. Since independence, till now, suggestions have been received for its permanent solution, but till date no structure has been prepared to deal with the crisis of flood in any state of the country except some small states. . On the advice of environmental experts and meteorologists and on the suggestions of climate change experts, the central and state governments have shown any will to solve the formidable problem of floods, it is not seen. As long as it rains and the threat of flooding is present, then the process of applying big formulas to deal with floods goes on to show the process. But as soon as the flood season subsides and the monsoon is about to leave, the problem of floods is completely forgotten.

Government figures keep on coming about the loss of public and money due to floods. But in reality the scope of loss is much higher. According to government figures, 10 million hectares of land was affected by floods in 1951 after independence. In the next ten years i.e. 1960, this figure increased to about 25 million hectares. This process did not stop here and in 1978 this figure increased to 30 million hectares. After 1980, it continued to increase and at present this figure has crossed 40 million hectares. Bihar has the most flood affected areas. According to the data, 73.06 percent area of ​​the state is flood affected.

These figures show that no concerted efforts have been made at the central and state levels to get rid of the ravages of floods. According to scientists, due to the adoption of new and impractical models of development and excessive exploitation of nature, the ecological balance has started disturbing. Due to this the temperature of the earth is increasing. Due to toxic gases, felling of trees, construction of big dams, stopping the uninterrupted flow of rivers and large constructions on the banks of rivers, there has been a lot of bad effect on the environment.

Apart from this, due to the dumping of millions of tons of soil and garbage in the rivers every year, the siltation in the rivers is increasing. This is blocking the flow of rivers. The rivers which were deep are becoming shallow. This is the reason behind the destructive attitude that has been seen in the rivers of Uttarakhand, Himachal and Assam in the last few years. The rain that falls in the hill states causes erosion of the mountains. This situation becomes more dire due to cloudburst. The debris of the mountains falls so much from above that the villages of the village get absorbed in it.

The country’s major rivers Brahmaputra, Ganga, Yamuna, Mahananda, Gandak, Kamala and Kosi cause havoc every year. Apart from this, small zonal rivers also start causing havoc due to excessive rainfall due to siltation. In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Uttaranchal, a large number of villages come under the grip of floods. In that condition lakhs of people migrate here.

They face serious problem of rehabilitation and livelihood. In other states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Assam, large scale dams are being built on rivers. When it rains heavily and the water moves at full speed, the gates of the dams are opened and the sudden release of water covers the villages. Crops of millions of hectares of land are completely destroyed. Kerala has been an example of this. Floods do not occur simply because of excessive rainfall, but because of mismanagement, over-mining and deforestation. Therefore, as long as these causes are present, the menace of floods cannot be got rid of.