by Raakhee Suryaprakash
Climate
Change is a reality that we in India live with everyday. Some of the factors
that make India and Indians vulnerable to Climate Change include:
- vast coastlines;
- major metros on the coast at sea level;
- developing economy with many new installations put at risk;
- a massive population, rapid urbanization and unplanned & unsustainable cities;
- Agriculture forms the backbone of the economy & employs a majority of rural Indians;
- economic indicators dependent on success/failure of Monsoon;
- Deforestation, etc.
Cycles of Floods and Drought
This past
year two weather patterns have dominated the Indian news – flooding and
drought. While farmers have been parched in parts of India, cities have flooded
bringing the urban rat-race to a grinding halt. The US Secretary of State John Kerry inDelhi to sign the Logistics Agreement with India, ironically, was stranded first
by rain affected traffic and then by heavy unseasonal rains hampering visibility
and delaying takeoff. Urban flooding has had an effect on the functioning of
the world for India as a services hub provides support to countries across the
globe from our urban BPOs and IT Parks: many of these massive buildings have
been built either on formerly fertile fields, marshlands or flood plains or
reclaimed or dry water bodies making them especially vulnerable to flooding. This
was first noticed in India during the Chennai Floods (December 2015 just ahead
of the Paris Climate Summit – see image) when massive IT Parks and BPO
complexes and Super-speciality Hospitals that were built since the 1990s flooded.
Millions of cubic litres had to be pumped out of the basements using diesel gen-sets,
which in turn polluted and spewed carbon.
The flooding
of our major river systems the Ganga and Brahmaputra has affected the fertile
lands of the “Cow Belt” States (Bihar & Uttar Pradesh especially) and the
North-East (Assam & Arunachal Pradesh particularly) and devastated infrastructure and displaced
tens of thousands. Ironically, at the start of summer the hill states of Uttarakhand
and Himachal Pradesh had to deal with days of uncontrollable forest fires, yet
during the monsoon that followed was in excess. The monsoon sadly
overcompensated in few regions and left many regions parched. Reversing the
trend in the beginning of the monsoon (June 2016 – see map).
Water Wars: A Microcosm
As a
developing economy with a massively mobile middle-class the extreme weather
patterns have a huge price tag. There are a lot more expensive things to drown
in our cities. Yet in addition to rain-caused traffic the only other thing to
bring the state of Karnataka to a halt and the IT hub of Bengaluru to a
standstill is a strike called to protest the court’s decision to share water
of the River Kaveri with neighbouring Tamil Nadu. This is water wars being fought out inter-state,
if the water stress continues as a result of Climate Change Water World Wars
could be the reality!
Hope amid Ruins
I recently
had the opportunity to visit the southern island of Rameshwaram, this temple
town became a thriving pilgrimage, tourism and business hub after the
neighbouring island of Dhanushkodi was devastated by the December 1964 cyclone.
Witnessing the power of enraged Mother Nature makes one commit to working to
mitigate the effects of the Anthropocene! Climate adaptation and sustainable
development with an emphasis on Low Carbon Growth are the needs of the hour and
have to be incentivized national policy.
