'Uttarakhand floods a man-made disaster'

The New Indian Express , Monday, July 22, 2013
Correspondent : Papiya Bhattacharya
Chairman of Divecha Centre for Climate Change and Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, J Srinivasan was stranded for a night in his car during the Uttarakhand floods.

He says: “Compared to the thousands who suffered in Kedarnath and Badrinath, my suffering was trivial and I do not want to talk about it.”

He has written an editorial for a journal Current Science, about whether the Uttarakhand disaster could have been averted if attention was paid to the warnings issued by certain departments.

The events were not due to a cloud burst, he says and adds: “A cloud burst is rainfall with an intensity of above 100 mm/h. There was no automatic rain gauge in this valley. But satellite data indicates that the highest rainfall was around 20 mm/h for a few hours. A landslide on June 15 may have choked the river Mandakini and water may have gushed out in the early hours of June 17.”

Prof Raman Sukumar at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, says: “The magnitude and frequency of the kind of events at Uttarakhand will increase because of global warming. Climate modelling studies have shown that both ends of the spectrum will begin to occur very often. So there may be less rainfall coupled with severe droughts, high rainfall along with floods and rivers in spate. However, what happens on the ground depends on how we treat our environment.”Coordinator of the Energy and Wetlands Research Group at CES, IISc, T V Ramachandra says: “Events like events will only increase. Hence, it is important to protect our environment and forests to mitigate the effects of climate change. Some parts of the Western Ghats are degraded and ecological restoration of these forests will enhance water and food security. Restoration of degraded forest patches in the central Western Ghats need immediate attention.”

Exploring the lack of communication in the area when the disaster struck, the editorial says: “On June 17, many people were stranded between Devprayag and Rudraprayag on the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway because of landslides. There was no attempt to assist the stranded and find alternative routes out of Alakananda valley. In an era of mobile communication, this should not have happened.”

 
SOURCE : http://newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/Uttarakhand-floods-a-man-made-disaster/2013/07/22/article1695691.ece
 


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