27 August,2024 11:07 AM IST | Mumbai | Krishna Prasad
Wayanad landslides caused heavy destruction and loss of life (Pic: PTI)
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The stunning hill station, Wayanad, which was one of the picturesque tourist spots, has been toppled like a house of cards. Guwahati, the vibrant northeast city of Assam, which was known for lush greenery and breath of fresh air and a wildlife haven, has been engulfed by the destructive tide. Shahjahanpur, a district situated in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, has been wrecked by a husky push of the flooded rivers.
All these events have one thing in common, i.e., earth's ruthless devastation - a nature's cry seeking for abrupt aid, wanting to be saved and protected before another chaos hits urban cities. It's very obvious that when monsoon strikes cities that are already propped up with rivers and seas, they end up surrendering to the escalating water levels, facing the worst nightmare in nature's playground. The ongoing monsoon crisis in several cities across India requires swift aid. Lakhs of people were adversely affected due to these merciless catastrophic floods.
If there's anything that we need to take from the recent disasters in India, it's that people must and should educate themselves about climate change. A sharp blow by the surging sea levels, a hillside angry descent by destructive landslides, and submerging regions that were sunk like a stone due to the crushing tides of devastation - all these are climate change ravaging, giving warning messages to act before it's too late. If there's one lesson we must take from nature's fierce and unforgiving struggle, it's that we need to educate ourselves about climate change.
The storms, fires, and rising seas are not just random acts - they are warnings. Nature is sending us a message, and it's up to us to listen, learn, and act before it's too late. So, how did it all happen? To what extent did the chaos shatter the urban cities? On 12th July 2024, the UP's state relief department stated that 732 villages in 17 districts were fully flooded. In one day's span, 11 death cases were reported by the state officials as a result of UP floods. The NH24, Lucknow-Delhi Highway, was entirely flooded due to the rising water levels in the Garra and Khannaut Rivers, in Shahjahanpur, obstructing the traffic in the surrounding regions.
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Mumbai rainfall: The financial city drenched in flood waters
For the last few decades until now, India has been witnessing a surge in flooding levels.
Mumbai has faced awful destruction, posed by frequent climate changes and extreme shifts in weather conditions, despite the development of corridors and passage channels built in and around the rainfall-sensitive areas.
Dating back to July 26, 2005, Mumbai faced a cataclysmic rainfall of 944 mm and flash floods, that submerged the city in deep waters, leaving both the locals and the government in a total mess. This event was an unforgettable one for Mumbaikars and the whole of India, as the city was in shambles, killing 1,094 human lives and several animals. The rainfall has posed an absolute mayhem, destroying the local infrastructure and the surrounding houses. Even the entire transport system, including the local train services, was halted due to the wreckage and havoc caused by the rainfall. As per multiple sources, this event led to damaging 4,000 cabs, 900 BEST buses, and 37,000 auto rickshaws. The surge in water logging only made the situation worse for Mumbaikars and hapless animal deaths engulfed in the deep floods expressed worries on the risk of disease emergence.
Five years back from now, i.e., 2020, till 2024, the current period, the Mumbai rainfall has increased the difficulties for the locals, government, BMC, and other officials. While the geographic location is an exception, the city has not done much yet, concerning building proper channels that would give direction for excess flooding-prone areas to survive. The lack of proper infrastructure and disaster management systems in place are leading to harsh weather threats in Mumbai, which is something that needs immediate attention from the government and local bodies.
On August 6, 2020, Mumbai faced a heavy rainfall of 293.8 mm within 12 hours. This was a record-setting August rain in a 24-hour window since 1974. The wind speed touched 106 km/hr as against the normal monsoon wind speed range of 10-15 km/hr. This calamity destroyed the nature imbalance, collapsing hospital infrastructure, posing short circuits and power outages in multiple parts of the city, and stranding the train services. This is the same year the deadly pandemic struck the world, putting mandate distancing rules in place. During this period, a rainfall like this made everything impossible and vexing to operate and resolve the flooding crisis in Mumbai. Despite several alerts from the meteorological department, the BMC failed to take swift preventive measures, which left trials of destruction and disorder in the financial city.
On July 18, 2021, Mumbai encountered another catastrophic rainfall of 235 mm in 24 hours. All the roads were clogged and jammed with water touching to the neck level, especially the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road. As per the IMD reports, the July month surpassed 1000 mm rainfall rather than the normal rainfall of 827 mm in Mumbai. In the same month, the city also faced two thunderstorms which led to 500 mm rainfall, drenching the entire city. The city received rainfall above and beyond 2,000-mm in July alone, carrying a similar pace since June 1 - the start of monsoons in India. Due to heavy rains in July month, the city also succumbed to fatal landslides in the suburbs of Chembur and Vikhroli, resulting in 32 deaths.
On July 1, 2022, the financial city was again drowned in wet, facing severe rains of 250 mm within 12 hours, resulting in flash floods in central Mumbai, posing 19 deaths. The city received above 4000 mm rainfall during the entire year, transcending the previous year's record. The BMC's improper management and lack of drainage system upgrades failed to meet the spiking flooding challenges in Mumbai.
Moving forward to 2024, the monsoon season moved towards the extreme side, as the Mumbai city's tagline "the city that never sleeps", continues to remain sleepless due to the rising rainfall and flood concerns. On July 7-8, 2024, the financial city received 300 mm rainfall, one of the extreme ones in the year so far. Due to this extreme weather event, certain places were waterlogged, hence several buses were rerouted to other directions by BEST. "Heavy rains in some low-lying areas led to waterlogging and disruption of suburban train services," said the BMC.
Further, the BMC declared a holiday in the first half of the day for all the schools and colleges, both government and private ones, respectively. "Train services are affected at Sion and between Bhandup and Nahur stations. Rainwater was above the tracks, so trains were stopped for nearly one hour. Now water has receded a bit, so trains are restarting but services are still affected,"said the Central Railway Public Relations Officer (CRPO). Reports claim 5 fatalities due to drowning and electrocution. The city faced a loss of hundreds of crores due to extreme rainfall and floods, resulting in property destructions, business shutdowns, transport immobility, etc.
According to the BMC reports, the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, particularly Vikhroli received a record rainfall of 315.6 mm (Automatic Weather System) in between 1 am to 7 am, Powai received 314.5 mm of rainfall, Andheri East recorded 292 mm, Chakala with 272 mm, and Aarey recording 259 mm, individually. The July 2024 rainfall was considered to be extreme, surpassing any July rainfall rainfall in the last 5 years.
In a sit-down with Sunil Kamble, a Senior India Meteorological Department (IMD) official, our conversation revolved around severe landslides, unpredictable monsoons, and floods that ravaged several states for decades, including the past two months.
With regards to monitoring and predicting rainfall patterns in regions prone to landslides and floods, Sunil Kamble said, "We have surface observational networks all over India. We release the air balloons for taking upper air observations. We have a network of automatic weather stations. We have more than 40 radars in India which take observations every 10 minutes. We have satellite images, the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model, the Global Forecast System (GFS) model, and ECMWF model. Additionally, we got ship observations of those who are in the oceans and aircraft observations. We monitor and take all the aforementioned observational network data every three hours, and analyze the whole of India and surrounding countries weather changes. The model predictions depend on the season and weather conditions. Apart from that, the IMD also conducts manual observations every three hours. Every half an hour satellite image observations are taken. The radar takes observations every 10 minutes. The automatic weather stations also give recent updates on weather activities every 15 minutes. We have lightning detectors set across regions to know where the thunderstorm activities are taking place. This cumulative data is taken into consideration before giving the final prediction of the rainfall or heatwave or cold wave activities."
In 2022, the BMC launched the Mumbai Climate Action Plan ( MCAP) to address the rising climate change hassles in Mumbai over the last few years. The aim of MCAP is to focus on the ground reality problems of vulnerable regions in Mumbai city. As per the MCAP 2022 report, Mumbai stands in the 5th position among the world's cities most at risk of flooding, resulting in USD 284 million monetary loss annually. The 2005 Mumbai flooding event alone posed a USD 690 million loss for the city. Studies claim that, by 2050, such extreme weather events, like floods and rains, will spike the annual monetary losses up to USD 6.1 billion per year.
The IMD uses the latest technologies like Doppler Radar, Satellite Imaging, and Numerical Weather Prediction models to enhance the weather forecasts. Kamble, the IMD official said, "We get data updates of weather after every 10 minutes with the aid of radar. The scanning capacity and range of one radar is almost 500 kms in and around. With the help of this radar, we get to know the water content in the clouds, moving direction of the clouds, and where it can reach in 30 min. We also get to know the vertical profile of the wind from the ground to 8 to 10 kms, along with changes in the wind patterns."
As they say, it's never too late to mend, the MCAP has got everything planned for Mumbai to make it a greener economy. Some of the MCAP 2020 strategies include the creation of an EV cell, 100% electric freight with a shift to rail and water by 2050, 100% electrification of buses by 2050, etc. The C40 Cities Cities Climate Leadership Group has launched a Climate Budget Program in collaboration with the City of Oslo, to aid and assist in building climate friendly cities, and Mumbai is a part of this program among others. To enhance the weather forecasting, the IMD has been working constantly to widen their reach. "We have increased the observational network. Earlier, we used to have only 25 radars, now we have increased the radar by 40, and expect to increase them by 65-70. We are trying to increase the automatic weather stations and observational network. No weather event should go undetected, so with the help of the latest technologies. We are trying to increase the observational network in inaccessible areas, so that we can get the data of those areas like hilly regions," says Kamble, the IMD Official.
According to the BMC FY 20224-25 report, they have allocated INR 31,774.59 crores for capital expenditure. The BMC has a set budget of INR 10,224.24 crores for the activities related to climate change, INR 2,163.8 crores budget has been set for MCAP activities such as plantations/landscaping, rooftop solar, electrification works, and sewage treatment plants in new constructions. The monsoons affect the country from June-September, however, the rainfall pattern has not met the seasonal expectations. The IMD official, Sunil Kamble, said, "Because of climate change, we are not getting the rainfall pattern like before. Earlier, we used to get continuous rainfall for a long period and that's not happening nowadays. In the month of July, we are getting excess rain, in the month of August, we are not getting as much rain as expected. With the rise of urbanization, the earth's temperature levels are increasing simultaneously, posing climate change threats - a factor that's causing floods in the urban cities." The BMC allocated a budget of INR 10,22,42,430 spanning across 6 sectors. The Urban Flooding & Water Resource Management sector has been allocated INR 9,70,79,774, accounting for 30.55% share of the total capital expenditure.
On July 18-19, 2024, Mumbai was again all wet, and got knocked down with 250 mm rainfall, submerging the part of the city, all with flooded waters. Raigad, Navi Mumbai, Konkan, Gandhi Market, Marathwada, and Vidarbha were some of the Mumbai regions that were given heavy rainfall alerts by the IMD. Kamble commented, "We are giving updates 24 hours in advance for flash floods and extreme rainfall warnings. With the aid of radars, we get to know in which area how much quantity of rainfall is likely to take place within the next 3-4 hours. We do NOWCAST, where we make predictions in advance, like in which area there will be a cloudburst or extreme weather situation. Moreover, we send SMS-es to disaster management authorities in every district of India."
The IMD official further added, "Monsoon prediction is always a challenge, especially the rainfall, but still we have the latest technologies compared to developed nations. A tropical weather phenomenon takes place because of convective activities. All the district disaster management authorities should take care of their respective districts. We are giving the district forecast for the next 5 days in advance along with timely updates. The disaster management authorities, district collectors, and local government authorities have to take a call for their district and convey whether it's orange alert or yellow alert or red alert. Extreme weather events are increasing nowadays. Earlier, we used to face very little extreme weather events but today we are witnessing rainfall of beyond 200 mm in less than 24 hours. Because of climate change and global warming, the monsoon patterns are changing frequently. Hence, all the reports are revised the following day, everyday at 12 to 12 in the afternoon. Plus, we are updating the weather report for the next 5 days twice to keep everyone abreast of the weather forecast."
Landslides in India: A trip down memory lane
Landslides, another climate change disaster that wiped several cities and villages in the past in India. The common cause behind recurrent landslides is prolonged rainfall for long hours and the inherent lack of vegetation in the upper regions of the catchment areas. India has a long history of landslide disasters for the last 8 decades and so, and still continues to create a massacre through the brutal force of nature.
Wayanad landslide: City revival in progress
2024 hasn't been the best year for India, as the nation is drowning in debris, floods, and landslides. On July 30, 2024, a stunning evergreen district of Kerala, Wayanad, took a huge landslide blow, driving the whole state upside down like never before. The district faced 570 mm rainfall, which was beyond control for nonstop 48 hours, annihilating everything sparing not even a whisper of what once was. As per several reports, this massive landslide event resulted in over 420 deaths of innocent souls and 397 injured people.
Due to incessant rainfall for a prolonged period and extensive deforestation, this landslide event exterminated the lives of several people. Chooralmala, Mundakkai, and Punjirimattom are the three surrounding areas of Wayanad that were adversely impacted by the landslide. Though the official data regarding the deaths and other aspects of the disaster were released, there are some missing details that are still under the search radar of the rescue officials. This event has triggered the government, climate experts and activists, and native locals in particular, highlighting how climate change can turn an entire region or state into a graveyard of shattered dreams.
The Gadgil Report, formally known as the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) Report, was headed and chaired by Dr. Madhav Gadgil. The prime reason for this report is to identify and address the key issues of highly sensitive areas in the Western Ghats. Home to a rich tapestry of species, the Western Ghats are recognized as one of the world's eight premier biodiversity hotspots, as per the UNESCO World Heritage Center. The Gadgil report categorized Western Ghats into Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZs) and ranked them accordingly. The ESZ-1 is considered as highly sensitive and the ESZ-3 labeled as the highly less sensitive ones. To conserve the precious ecosystem, the report recommended stringent regulations on development activities, such as mining, construction, and large-scale industrial projects, and suggested involving local communities for any future decision-making.
As far as urban planning is concerned, IMD official, Sunil Kamble, said, "Generally, whenever they plan for drainage or extended corridors for excessive water passage due to floods, they do consider how much rainfall does occur in a particular city. The projections are made based on the urban planning reports of the last 2-3 decades. When rainfall happens more than 100 mm in an hour or in 24 hours, we get flash floods type of situations. So, the planning is done accordingly to ensure less flooding in risk-prone areas during heavy rainfall events."
The Gadgil report has classified the ecologically sensitive areas, however, the government wasn't happy with the recommendations, claiming that this move would hamper economic progress in states like Kerala, Karnataka, and Goa. Hence, the government brought in a new committee with a new chair head Dr. K. Kasturirangan. After the full review of the report, the new committee eliminated key areas that were once considered ecologically sensitive by the previous committee. As they say, "every action has an equal and opposite reaction", and the Wayanad Landslide event is a classic case manifesting the failure of implementing the initial Gadgil report recommendations.
The government's poor decision-making led to a huge downfall of what was once known as the verdant paradise for every tourist who visited Kerala. Instead of focusing on protecting the environment that's prone to dangerous landslides, the government extended the areas for economic development by turning a blind eye to unforeseen future consequences and repercussions. This resulted in the Wayanad tragedy. The report recommended that regions falling under the ESZ-1 category should be properly regulated, asking to limit the human interventions to secure the surroundings and reduce the chances of disasters. All those stern rules were not properly implemented by the government, which led to increased vulnerability to landslides in Wayanad and the bordering regions. This thereby heightened disaster risk in ecologically sensitive regions like the Western Ghats.
Commenting on the Wayand case, Kamble said, "IMD has a separate R&D wing to research in diverse areas like agriculture, telecommunication, NWP products, etc. Many research papers were published on extreme weather events such as cyclones, rainfalls, and landslides. For the Himalayan regions, we are trying to have more Doppler Radars, so that one radar can see at least 200 kms in and around the hilly areas, so that no weather events get undetected."
The IMD collaborated with other government bodies like the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to ensure timely dissemination of weather warnings. With regards to the Wayand situation, the IMD official stated, "Whenever there's a cyclone or thunderstorm threat, the IMD sends SMS alerts and warnings to NDMA of all the cities and regions across India. The NOWCAST report is also sent in advance to the disaster management authorities, railways, district collectors, shipping corporations, power grids, etc."
Funding aid for Wayanad's reconstruction
The Wayanad hazard led to considerable chaos and mayhem in and around the region. The district faced a major loss, causing severe injuries and claiming several lives. The seasonal factors play a key role in determining the risk of landslides in specific regions of India. The IMD official, Sunil Kamble, asserted that "Basically, it's very difficult to make a decision or inform about landslides but in hilly areas when the rainfall quantity is more than 200 mm or extreme rainfall occurs for 2-3 days in hilly areas, the soil gets loose and the possibility for landslides is higher."
To aid the landslide victims and revive the state back to normal condition, various private and government organizations came forward to do their bit. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that the state government would help the families who suffered due to this landslide.
The CM announced INR 6,000 for landslide survivors who are staying under the roof of their relatives and INR 6 Lakh for the closest living relative of the deceased person. The initial INR 4 lakh of the total INR 6 lakh compensation will be given from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), and the rest will be sourced from the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). CM Vijayan stated siblings of the deceased person should prove their blood relation to claim the ex-gratia payment. Additionally, the government announced monetary aid of INR 75,000 to survivors who became physically disabled due to the landslide.
The Kerala government sought the center for disaster aid of INR 900 crores to fund the rehabilitated groups and for recovery operations of the landslide affected regions. Moreover, some celebrities and non-profit organizations also showed their support in terms of donations and volunteering assistance. Mamootty and his son Dulquer Salmaan have donated INR 20 Lakh and 15 Lakh, respectively. Apart from that, the duo father-son, also supplied food, meds, ambulances and other important necessities through the Mammootty Care Foundation.
Tamil actor Vikram contributed a generous sum of INR 20 lakh to the Wayanad disaster. Yuvraaj, Vikram's manager, took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "Pained by the sad news of the devastation caused by the recent landslide in Kerala's #Wayanad district that left over 150 people dead, 197 injured and several others missing, Actor @chiyaan today donated a sum of â¹20 lakhs to the Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund."
Actress Rashmika Mandanna showed her extended support to the landslide victims by donating INR 10 Lakhs to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF).
The Chiranjeevi family gave a handsome donation to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF). Actor Allu Arjun made a noble donation of INR 25 Lakh to help with the rehabilitation operations in Wayanad. The stylish star took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "I am deeply saddened by the recent landslide in Wayanad. Kerala has always given me so much love, and I want to do my bit by donating â¹25 lakh to the Kerala CM Relief Fund to support the rehabilitation work. Praying for your safety and strength."
Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan, the father-son duo and acclaimed actors, also extended their financial support by contributing a sum of INR 1 Crore to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF). Chiranjeevi took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "Deeply distressed by the devastation and loss of hundreds of precious lives in Kerala due to nature's fury in the last few days. My heart goes out to the victims of the Wayanad tragedy. Charan and I together are contributing Rs 1 Crore to the Kerala CM Relief Fund as a token of our support to the victims. My prayers for the recovery of all those in pain."
The rebel star and actor, Prabhas, also joined the Telugu stars club, to help the Wayanad Landslide issue, by making an enormous donation of INR 2 crore.
Tamil Movie Actors Suriya, Karthi, and Jyothika together made a substantial donation of INR 50 lakh to the Kerala issue. Fahadh Faasil and Nazriya Nazim collectively made a donation of INR 25 Lakh. Actor Kamal Haasan made a considerable donation of INR 25 Lakh to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF). The duo-couple, Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan, also contributed their share of INR 20 Lakh, to bolster the ongoing operations.
Stay updated on weather forecasts
Being a step ahead on the weather information can save you from becoming prey to any unforeseen disaster. The IMD official, Kamble, stated, "The IMD is informing all the government bodies from NDMA to chief secretaries during climatic changes to take proper precautions. The IMD is always connected with the WMO (World Meteorological Organization). Whatever we are doing here, the technology we are adapting, all activities are at par with the WMO."
The IMD has three weather apps, namely, Mausam, Damini, and Meghdoot. The Mausam app conveys local weather info, the Damini app informs about the lightning and thunderstorms that are likely to take place, and finally, the Meghdoot app, designed particularly for farmers, delivers tailored crop management advice based on the latest weather trends. All three apps are available on both Android and Apple stores for download.
"We have Whatsapp groups of concerned agencies. We send weather forecast emails and SMS-es. We have hotline connectivity with all the district disaster management authorities. IMD does a lot of media workshops, general public workshops, and outreach programs for fishermen and farmers. So that all the information is reached to every user," added Kamble on educating the masses and widening the reach of information. Since the fake news saga continues in the evolving digital world, the IMD official mentioned a note: "I request that any WhatsApp message or misleading messages are there, you need to go to the IMD official website of the government of India and get the authentic info."
Also Read: How India is combating climate change amid unbearable temperatures
