Tides of despair

While rivers in the east are known to flood their plains, the misery that follows is largely created by flawed development models and corruption. Embankments are not adequately reinforced, leading to breaches. An alleged nexus between contractors and government agencies (earlier, armed groups were involved in many states) ends up doing a poor job. The bigger problem is persistent erosion that robs landmass. Since 1950, Assam has lost 7.4 per cent of its land. We are not even halfway through the monsoon and 27 districts of Assam are flooded; 18 lakh people are affected.

Beyond Dibrugarh in upper Assam, amid challenging logistics, the media coverage reduces. Cachar, one of the worst-affected regions, has not even received relief. Parts of Arunachal Pradesh are cut off, hampering relief efforts. The Army and the air force are routinely called in to help — such is the scale of devastation year after year. This year, Manipur has been hit by floods, with the Imphal and Iril rivers breaching embankments. Flood warnings have been sounded in Bihar and a flood-like situation is being reported from north Bengal. Flood studies and reportage almost invariably miss out on the inequality and the cumulative loss.

As the water recedes, the attention shifts till the next monsoon, when the same low-lying areas will go under water. To get through another season without crops, one must borrow money. To feed too many mouths gets difficult, encouraging traffickers to take away children who drop out of school that turn into temporary shelters. The following year, the story repeats itself, and over a decade, each family is caught in an inescapable cycle of debt. After a scorching summer, a wave of floods is sweeping India from the north to the east and the west. About 49 million hectares (of 3,290 lakh hectares) of land are prone to floods in India. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, on an average every year, "75 lakh hectares of land is affected, 1,600 lives are lost and the damage caused to crops, houses and public utilities is Rs 1,805 crore due to floods." This year, at least 85 lives have been lost so far. Over 30.83 lakh people are affected, with 3,154 villages submerged and 49,014 hectares of crop area damaged.

Moreover, the hills of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are chipping away. The reasons are simple: hill-cutting, making tunnels across mountains, rampant illegal construction and unplanned city development with poor or no drainage system and no master plans for cities. Mumbai city was built by the reclamation of seven major islands connected by the Mithi river that served for drainage. The river swells during the monsoon, flooding the city that reclaims more and more land for expansion. In the past 40 years, the city reclaimed double the land compared to the previous 300 years, reducing the width of the river dumped with waste, filled with slums and killing mangroves along the way while reinforcing the retaining wall. The sum result is a history of disastrous flooding.

In 2023, the Yamuna reached a record high of 208.66 metres, much above the level recorded during the last great flood in Delhi in 1978. It is well known how the Capital choked the great river by discharging polluted water, leading to siltation and a rise in the level of the riverbed. Bengaluru urban and rural are the most flood-prone in all of South India, save a few places in Kerala. From 1969 to 2021, IMD data shows Bengaluru recorded more than 70 flood events almost entirely due to urbanisation. Today, the city has 250 flood hotspots and planners are still figuring out how to drain rainwater. Chennai is also emerging as a city that can no longer manage rains, but it is telling how such disasters are embedded within inequality and settlements in low-lying areas.

The most dangerous destruction of the ecosystem leading to catastrophic floods is the unstable Himalayan belt of Uttarakhand and Himachal. At least six districts of Uttar Pradesh are under threat from the water released in Uttarakhand. Sharda, Rapti and Gandak are flowing above the danger mark, affecting more than 20 villages. The big picture is grim, and any long-term study or coverage on loss of human and animal lives is episodic.

While weather conditions are beyond our control, early warning systems, community involvement and better planning of development projects and flood management are obvious ways to mitigate this annual disaster. Despite state governments' demands, floods are not yet a national calamity. Is it because they affect the most vulnerable of our population? The case of Kolkata is a curious one, with the central Kolkata and its downtown a lowland now. The eastern fringe of the old city had enough water body to absorb the rain so that it does not spill over to the main city. But now, by courtesy of the real estate business the water bodies have vanished, hence water once getting logged in the streets cannot be pumped out, as it back flows to the lowland again. So a strong rain can easily turn Kolkata to Venice!

Views expressed are personal