Maharashtra Floods - The Small and Big of it

The floods which have ravaged various Indian cities this monsoon may have brought to the fore some serious lack of planning. However I feel there are two ways to look at this.

It will be very clichéd to say that this is bad urban planning. That is a well known fact.  It goes without saying that our cities have grown  haphazardly.  Being a developing country India is still going through the rigours of labour dynamics. A large work force from the rural areas is migrating to the cities in search of jobs.  This has put a heavy burden on urban infrastructure. The scale of this mass migration was not anticipated by the city authorities.  Thus, lackadaisical implementation of rules led to lot of illegal construction. For e.g.  buildings were constructed in areas reserved for green cover or in case of Mumbai even flood plains were reclaimed. Debris from excavations was dumped into rivers and canals creating obstruction to the flow of water.  This combined onslaught on the city’s capacity to accommodate people has led to this current situation.

Where climate change comes into the picture is the amount of rain fall and its distribution.  IMD(Indian Meteorological Department) statistics at the time of writing this article show that this year the problem is not deficiency but skewed pattern of rain fall received by different states. Maharashtra has received 161 percent excess rainfall this year. Other states like Telangana(148% excess), Karnataka(128%), Gujarat(112%)  shows that this year monsoon has been abnormal, but on the plus side.  The distribution of rain has not been even within the states either.  In Maharashtra some parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada are staring at famines when neighbouring districts are reeling under floods.  This skewed distribution is the result of complex weather phenomena.  But they get highlighted because of excessive rainfall. 

Scientists and experts the world over have been warning about this for years now. Floods in India is not an isolated occurrence. This year China is also reeling under floods. The Typhoon Lekima has wreaked havoc in Zhejiang province with many people having to be moved to safety.   This year in the month of June the UK also witnessed flooding in many parts. In contrast,  dry weather spells have caused massive forest fires in western United States and parts of Asia. Despite advances in AI, predicting weather will get more difficult because the broad set patterns on which the prediction models are based are getting disrupted. 

There are no easy answers to these catastrophes.  For centuries man has been ignoring the warnings given by nature. In fact it will not be an exaggeration  to say that exploitation of resources is inherent to human civilisation.  From extracting resources to polluting, our progress can be measured by looking at how much harm we have caused the planet.

Man will have to change his ways drastically if he is to survive on this planet. Some say it may already be too late.  However assuming that we still have time to correct our ways, some measures will have to be taken immediately. E.g. Burning of fossil fuels, production of industrial chemicals, use of artificial fertilisers in Agriculture, Animal Husbandry(meat industry) has to stop.  New technologies are no less polluting. The internet combined with smart phones contribute significantly to global warming. Every video downloaded and every e-mail sent  adds to the carbon footprint of the user. Statistics show that at the global level, wireless social media now contributes  as much to global warming as the aviation industry.

It is very easy to list out well identified harmful activities of man and tick them off for termination. However millions are employed by these industries.  No economy will sustain heavy disruptions without causing social upheavals. The answer could be gradual change.  Bring in new technology and phase out the old. But we may be running out of time. It takes years for new technology to be invented or even  an old one to be modified.  Even after this, reversing the effects of human abuse on nature will take even longer.

The smaller picture or the limited view of the remedial measures for current disasters would restrict us to mending our ways. Improve lifestyles to suit the environment, recycle as much as you can, reduce your carbon footprint  etc.  But the larger picture would tell us that we are already on borrowed time. As Stephen Hawking said in one of his last interviews, man will have to look at other places to live. Humans can be equated to termites or some voracious pests which attack a tree in the forest. The colony of these insects will systematically devour the tree and consume all the nutrients it has to offer.  After it has been completely exploited the insect colony moves on to the next suitable tree. We are no different from these creatures.  Space exploration is not just for scientific study but also a search for our next tree.  Perhaps these disasters have made us realise that earth has a limited life and resources and sometime in the future we will have to pack our bags and relocate our civilisation.