Floods & landslides: Not entirely natural phenomena
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Four days of rainfall, Manipur is literally awash. While landslides and mudslides have cut off key highways and roads at different places in the hill areas, flood waters have inundated large parts of the valley districts including the Imphal city. Schools have been closed and many Government offices have been shut. With several localities already flooded, many houses have been submerged partially, if not fully. In addition, vast fields of vegetable farms have been submerged and a large number of fish farms are now over flooded. This is a brief account of the havoc caused by the flood. Though no full assessment of the physical damages and economic losses caused by the devastating flood has been done yet, everybody can guess that this widespread flood would have far-reaching impacts. On May 5, devastating thunderstorm and hailstorm wreaked havoc in different parts of the state. Official records said that more than 15,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed. Roofs of thousands of houses were either blown away or perforated like steel gauze leaving the affected families without a roof or a badly perforated roof. With the government dragging its feet while its agencies must be acting on war footing, the affected families were left at the mercy of the weather god. Even today, a large number of the affected families have not received any kind of aid from the government. MLAs need to reach out to all the suffering citizens at this hour of tragedy, leaving aside all political considerations and ill-conceived motives. Already, the entire state has been reeling under 13 months of widespread violence. Apart from the hundreds of people killed in the violence and the thousands of people displaced by the violent conflict, almost all economic activities have been crippled by the protracted violence. All these manmade and/or natural disasters would have far-reaching cumulative impacts on the socio-economic life of all sections of people.
Here, we would like to question whether the kind of floods as seen at present in Manipur is purely a natural phenomenon. Is it justified to blame rainfall or floods for all the landslides and mudslides? It has been well established that environmental degradation and over-exploitation of forest resources, particularly rampant deforestation are some major contributors, if not sole factors, for the global climate change and harsh, unpredictable weather conditions like floods, droughts, landslides, mudslides etc. Too often we think and act as if we were not part of nature. Rather than thinking of ourselves as nested in nature and dependent upon it, we think of ourselves as sitting on top of it, managing it. We think there are the human world and the natural world, and we forget that we are ourselves, with all our technology, part of nature. We, mankind, are responsible for the global warming and adverse weather conditions seen everywhere across the globe and it is our responsibility to remedy this global issue, even if we cannot totally undo what mankind had done in the past couple of centuries. In another word, floods, droughts and landslides are not purely natural phenomena. A slight rainfall is enough to cause water-logging or flash flood in several localities of Imphal and greater Imphal areas. The reason is not far to seek. Non-existent or dysfunctional drainage system is largely responsible for such kinds of water-logging or flash floods. Reclaiming paddy fields and low-lying areas for different anthropocentric purposes is another major factor for floods in the Imphal valley. In several localities of Imphal and greater Imphal areas, the drains are either too small or totally clogged or non-existent. One cannot put the entire blame on the government for this malady. Citizens are also equally responsible.
Here, we would like to question whether the kind of floods as seen at present in Manipur is purely a natural phenomenon. Is it justified to blame rainfall or floods for all the landslides and mudslides? It has been well established that environmental degradation and over-exploitation of forest resources, particularly rampant deforestation are some major contributors, if not sole factors, for the global climate change and harsh, unpredictable weather conditions like floods, droughts, landslides, mudslides etc. Too often we think and act as if we were not part of nature. Rather than thinking of ourselves as nested in nature and dependent upon it, we think of ourselves as sitting on top of it, managing it. We think there are the human world and the natural world, and we forget that we are ourselves, with all our technology, part of nature. We, mankind, are responsible for the global warming and adverse weather conditions seen everywhere across the globe and it is our responsibility to remedy this global issue, even if we cannot totally undo what mankind had done in the past couple of centuries. In another word, floods, droughts and landslides are not purely natural phenomena. A slight rainfall is enough to cause water-logging or flash flood in several localities of Imphal and greater Imphal areas. The reason is not far to seek. Non-existent or dysfunctional drainage system is largely responsible for such kinds of water-logging or flash floods. Reclaiming paddy fields and low-lying areas for different anthropocentric purposes is another major factor for floods in the Imphal valley. In several localities of Imphal and greater Imphal areas, the drains are either too small or totally clogged or non-existent. One cannot put the entire blame on the government for this malady. Citizens are also equally responsible.