Amidst the glitz and glamour, fun and excitement of the 70th anniversary of Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his high-decibel speech from the rampart of the Red Fort on 15 August, exhorted Team India to strive for the creation of a New India by 2022, when the country is due to celebrate the 75th anniversary of freedom.

To give due credit to his oratorical skills, his appeal for substituting the chalta hai (let it be) approach by badal sakta hai (change is possible) mindset must have stirred up the patriotic fervor of true nationalists, who are beseeched by Modi’s dream of an India which will be the El Dorado of the poor, the youth and women, and will be free of corruption and black money.

Advertisement

While fervently painting the rosy picture of India to come, Modi made quick and passing references to some aberrations that have pained him, notably the loss of lives and property in the flood-hit areas. On 15 August, a photograph of an elderly school master and his very young pupils, saluting the hoisted national flag while standing in waist-deep water in a flooded village of Assam, went viral and caused a further melting of the hearts of nationalists at such a glorious expression of patriotism..

One hopes that the emotions will bring about a genuine transformation of the chalta hai attitude to a badal sakta hai orientation on the part of those at the helm of governance.

India faces the grave challenge of responding to the threat of climate change, perhaps more than any other country in this planet.

UN humanitarian agencies have recently reported that more than 40 million people have been affected by devastating floods and landslides in South Asia and India alone accounts for 32 million people afflicted by such natural calamities this year.

The country’s monsoon season runs from June to September and usually leads to floods, but this year’s disaster is said to be the worst to affect the region in years.

Experts have said that rising sea surface temperatures in South Asia have led to more moisture in the atmosphere; hence the torrential rainfall, a situation caused by climate change. Large parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar and West Bengal and even Gujarat were flooded following heavy rain and the resultant destruction of lives and properties.

Many submerged regions remained cut off for days, and it was difficult for relief and rescue operations to be undertaken.

Even the roads of one of our mega cities, Mumbai, turned into rivers of death recently following torrential rain and the tragic death of a reputed doctor who fell into the manhole of a submerged street is testament to the utter failure of the municipal bodies to tackle the deluge. The present government at the Centre has an unflattering record on tackling environmental issues. India continues to be highly dependent on coal and fossil fuel as sources of energy, and the process of switching over to clean energy like solar and wind power have not made rapid progress, despite abundant availability of these renewable sources of energy.

As Modi promised a pucca house for every poor person by 2022 in his Independence day speech, and politicians of lesser importance keep fanning the revolution of rising expectations of the common man for access to concrete roads, bridges, malls and other facilities, the farm lands and wetlands keep disappearing. Land sharks in cahoots with corrupt politicians have wrought havoc to our ecosystem.

The National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem is in place. And yet unplanned construction in the upper edges of Uttarakhand and adjoining areas are continuing unabated. This has accentuated the threat of landslides and flash floods. Reckless deforestation and urbanization have resulted in record-breaking heat waves, that have killed thousands during the last two summers.

Drought has damaged crops, causing starvation and a spate of suicides by farmers. As global temperatures continue to rise, hotweather countries like India feel that the limits of habitability are being stretched. Excessive heating leads to uncontrolled downpour, as has happened this year, and thus India is caught in the vortex of cyclical waves of drought and floods, with severe repercussions like the rapid spread of vector borne diseases.

After years of neglect and apathy, when push comes to shove, the authorities are driven to drastic measures as happened in Bangalore where the government undertook a demolition drive of buildings constructed illegally on encroached storm-water drains and lake beds across the city. Such constructions were blocking the flow of rain water, and thus submerged of this high-tech city.

How could the rich and powerful realtors construct such structures in flagrant violation of existing environmental norms?

This is the crucial question which is yet to be answered. An all-out effort to sensitise common people about the need to restrict our hunger for urban facilities so as to minimise the destabilizing impact on environment and climate is direly imperative.

Mobilization of massive investment and technological prowess for afforestation, for the prevention of soil erosion, for proper management of our rivers and dams, and for disaster management are required to avert further catastrophes.

The Modi government has decided to ratify the Paris climate pact, which seeks to limit the Earth’s warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. But to keep its pledge, India needs to confront the unpalatable reality that it alone accounts for 4.5 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases. India needs to be more active globally to push through the agenda of the Paris deal. Though our Prime Minister avoided raising the issue of climate change during his last meeting with President Trump, now is the time to aggressively campaign on the urgency of tackling climate change and dispel the misconception that climate change is a myth.

In the midst of the chest-thumping after the amicable resolution of the Doklam stand-off with China, our difficult neighbour, hardly any attention was paid to the disturbing news that China did not share hydrological data on the Sutlej and Brahmaputra rivers with India during the flood season this year. Incidentally, rumours were rife in Assam and north Bengal that the exceptionally heavy flooding this year was due to the release of water from a dam built on the Chinese part of Brahmaputra ~ Yarlong Tsangpo ~ though there is no evidence to corroborate this. Improving riparian diplomacy with our neighbours, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, pulling together technical know-how for better management of crosscountry rivers and for tackling climate change issues call for statesmanship and a visionary approach.

Climate change issues need to be accorded top priority if India wants to avert the apocalypse and if we want to see those children and the teacher of the village of Assam raising the tricolour on dry land in 2022.

(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Womens Christian College, Kolkata)