For instance, the Northeast has seen a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 765 sq km and there is no widespread alarm. Somehow we don’t seem to see the link between our health and the health of the planet. We have turned natural water sources into cesspools when ideally we should not be dumping garbage or effluents in rivers and oceans at all. Who can we blame for all this? Ourselves, most of all, because despite the obvious climate issues before us, we continue to plunder forests in the name of development, keep mining eco-sensitive regions, and continue to expand real estate activities in areas that cannot accommodate more environmental degradation.įloods are so frequent now because we have encroached upon river banks. Recently, an intergovernmental panel on climate change indicated that unless we learn from our mistakes collectively, we may experience a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees C in the near future.īut even before we reach that tipping point, we will pay with human lives, loss of biodiversity, degradation of flora and fauna and massive economic devastation every time there is a flash flood, a forest fire, a pandemic, a drought, a pandemic.
In densely populated, developing countries like ours, the climate crisis will have harsher ramifications than we can imagine and the crisis is already showing up in our newsfeed and in our streets. This is what extreme weather events look like. In Kerala too, rain continues unabated and hundreds of families have been displaced. The Indian Meteorological Department has also stated that some parts of the Kumaon region recorded 403.2 millimeters (15.8 inches) of rainfall, and this is the highest rainfall over a 24-hour period ever recorded here. I learnt that there has also been flooding near the Jim Corbett National Park and over 3,000 people had to be evacuated from a barge on the Sarda River. Houses have toppled over, lives have been lost, roads are waterlogged, crops have been destroyed, services have been impaired amid overflowing lakes, rivers, landslides and partially submerged villages and towns.
Against the backdrop of a series of flash floods in several parts of India, Bikrant Tiwary wonders if we would treat the planet better now that the climate crisis has come home?īe it Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Uttarakhand, the resources of India’s National Disaster Response Force are being stretched to the limit, in order to rescue stranded people and create safe spaces in regions devastated by floods.
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