Kerala flooding of 2018 — What factors triggered the worst flooding of this century?
Kerala flooding of August 2018 was man-made, ecologically sensitive ghat areas like Idukki, Waynad districts, etc were not safeguarded by the state administration. reduction in green cover was the main reason for so many land slides, etc. Yet another reason was improper handling of dams that were filled up to the capacity.
In the last decade or so the Mother nature has been showing her fury on us by way of generating powerful cyclones, storms, twisters, cloud busts, forest fires and disastrous flooding, rise in sea-level, etc. These things are happening somewhere across the globe and if we have the delusion that it is the edit of God, we must stop being a fatalist and ponder over the human abuse of the nature. Being humans, we are the ones responsible for the mess we are in right now. With too many automobiles, too many factories and too many power houses throwing out smoke and effluents, the resultant global warming, etc due to excess carbon dioxide, methane in the atmosphere, has been a threat to our very existence on this earth. The man made activities like deforestation, haphazard construction, mining, quarrying are also responsible for the natural disasters.
The SE Monsoon season has already set in the state of Kerala and the weather Dept at Chennai says that this year the rainy season will be a normal one and if it is so, it is well and good. Exactly two years ago, during very early SW monsoon season, Kerala was devastated, continuous rain in August 2018 triggered the worst flooding of the century. On the 8th of August it received 12 inches of rainfall within 24 hours. A ll the rivers in Kerala were in spate and many overflowed beyond the flood plains. People in these areas were worst affected. Media reports pointed out the 2018 flooding with a rain fall of 2086 mm is next only to 1924 (the rain fall was 3368 mm) flooding. By mid August several million people were affected and toward the end of the season roughly 300000 people became homeless. The excess flooding was further complicated by land slides in many places causing road damages and threats to human lives. The 2018 flooding in Kerala left 445 people dead, 140 people missing and affected one third of the state population. All the 14 districts were classified as a level three calamity by the central government, meaning it was just devastating.
In the midst of calamity we saw the people’s strength, transcending caste, creed, religion, etc, working hard to save the fellow humans against nature’s fury. Highly commendable was the selfless sacrifice made by the fishermen communities, ignoring their woes of tough profession and painful existence. The central and state organizations, backed by many Indian states and the Kerala diaspora handled the deluge-like situation well despite odds. The problem of flooding was caused by many factors; overall it was man made. The Govt. negligence and human greediness were the primary causes of this natural disaster that could have been averted had the people respected the ‘’mother nature’’ and the green space around them.
We are, now, confronted by many questions and one being a simple one. Why was Kerala pushed to the abysmal depth of environmental disaster in 2018? What went wrong with a state that is dubbed as the God’s own Country — fertile land endowed with nature’s bounty — backwaters, plenty of greenery and groves, etc? Rain alone is not the main reason for this disaster. It is sheer negligence of the past governments and the greed of the people.
The following are the primary reasons responsible for the 2018 disastrous flooding in the state of Kerala:
01. Kerala gets the rain during two seasons — SW monsoon — June to September from the Arabian sea and the NE retreating monsoon — October to December. The first phase accounts for most of the rains. Before the monsoon seasons, the PWD should strengthen the banks of the rivers and plan the management of many dams to handle possible heavy flood situation When disaster struck, last time in August, out of a total of 42 dams, two thirds of the dams in Kerala were opened at the same time as the dams were filling fast, causing more hardship to the people living down stream many. This was a bad decision taken in haste by the officials and such an action further aggravated the flood situation .
02. In 2018, Kerala unlike earlier years, received very heavy monsoon rain fall 116 per cent more than normal. The state disaster management dept was not prepared for such an eventuality in 2018. This time they should plan ahead to deal with excess water flows and rescue operations in the severely flooded areas.
03. The state being a populous one, has the highest population density with less land. It is 860 square kilo meters that is double of the average population density of India. People in the flood-prone areas should be either warned or moved out to safer places. In 2018, it was not well planed.
04. The destruction of wooded areas has happened on a large scale in the past and even continues now. Green space is part of Kerala’s geography as one side of the land is in the Western Ghat area. Unfortunately, since independence, the green area has been shrinking, in particular, in the last two decades. This being due to poor forest land management and lax in the enforcement of strict forest regulations/rules.
05. Continuous reduction in green space is a serious issue in Kerala. In 1900, the green cover was 8 lakh hector and the reduction to less than 2 lakh hectors of land this far is quite shocking and deplorable. Part of the reason is growing population, housing needs, encroachments of forest lands by unscrupulous people and Christian groups, etc.
06. Loosing vast green cover will reduce the capacity of land to absorb water and promotes water stagnation. Lots of trees, etc with deep roots will absorb the water flowing on the land. Deforestation in the hilly areas causes sudden raise of water as there are no trees left to absorb it.
07. Because of lack of vegetation and tree cover, soil erosion will make the lands vulnerable to landslides.
08. To meet the additional housing needs, housing construction projects are going on the hills as well as in the paddy fields on the plains. The latter act as reservoirs in the low lying areas and absorb the excess rain water but these soil rich fields were converted into airports, malls, building etc. The broken hard rock fragments and minute gains from the quarries are used to fill up the low-lying lands close to the rivers.
09. On the hills, building work goes on with poor planing and the builders never check the land stability, gradient of the ground and the flow of water during rains. They block those channels where rain water will normally follow during heavy rains. Haphazard and unplanned construction will spell disaster.
10. Both on the plains and on the hills activities of Mining and Quarrying have been on for sometime. Private parties promote construction of tourist homes for the visitors. Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel was against these activities because the ghat area is ecologically a sensitive one as the soil cover and several wildlife habitats will be affected. The removal of trees on a large scale will promote soil erosion that may cause landslides because soil loses its ability to hold water. But unscrupulous people find loopholes to circumvent the govt. restrictions. Deforestation coupled with quarrying and mining will impact the soil and its strength, promoting landslides near the highways and ghat roads.
11. Kerala state holds the third rank with highe st number of rivers and most of them flow west to reach the Arabian sea.The crux of the problems is many places the flood plains areas of the river are clogged due to housing projects. Consequently when flooding occurs the flood plains are turned into disaster area, The over-flowing river water does not have space to drain out or gets absorbed in the land. Further, these rivers need to be cleared of silt accumulation periodically and it will vastly improve the water- holding capacity of the river. Flood plains areas must be free from housing projects, etc.
12. In 2018, the SE monsoon season had set in earlier and brought in unexpected heavy rains all over the places including the catchment areas. Th officials made a grave mistake by waiting for the dams to fill up to the danger level and release the water at that time. Down stream areas already faced the flood-like situation. The belated release of water from the dams impacted the areas and people in the low-lying areas.
The 2018 Kerala flooding is a severe warning to the other state governments with a large number of rivers that are fed by rain water. Every year, prior to the monsoon season, the officials need to be alert and be prepared for any eventuality or any emergency situation .
Ref:
https://upscbuddy.com/reasons-behind-the-kerala-floods/ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/kerala-floods-over-100-die-in-a-day-top-developments/articleshow/65437066.cms
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/army-navy-ndrf-work-on-war-footing-in-kerala-to-carry-out-rescue-and-relief-operations/story-UwVgvoiy532ZIa4rDpeUFK.html https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/amicus-curiae-for-panel-to-identify-flood-causes/article26726699.ec
Originally published at http://navrangindia.blogspot.com (images, etc changed).
