The floods of shattering magnitudes that ravaged Southern states and many parts in North India bring us back to the question of ‘who is causing the ecological destruction in India?’
Amidst major landslides and perennial floods in many parts of India that are absorbing people’s resources in repairing every year, we must ask some soul-searching questions: Who is the culprit? Man or Nature? The answer seems to be human interference, callous, politically motivated ethnic consciousness when it comes to water sharing projects like the Southern controversy over Cauvery river water. Water finds slopes and traverses. If there are no trees to hold in the terrain, denuded hills and mountains cannot hold that excess water. For instance, Kerala has not recovered from 2018 when it witnessed the worst floods since 1924.
The calamity throughout the nation has claimed precious human lives. We salute the efforts of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), a specialised force that enters into swift and coordinated action with the assistance of civil society and the public.
The mammoth tragedy revives the discussion around the need to protect the fragile ecosystem in the country. Massive investments are being called for for tree-planting by many agencies in India, credible corporates such as Tatas, and other NGOs such as the Isha Foundation launched renewed measures to increase the green cover.