INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. THE REVIVAL OF SUKAPAIKA RIVER

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the NGT has directed the state government of Odisha to revive Sukapaika River within 6 months.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has instructed the Odisha government to revive Sukapaika River, a distributary of Mahanadi River.
• It has directed the state government to create a dedicated fund for this river’s revival.
• The tribunal also directed the Odisha government to make budgetary allocation of Rs.49.67 crore to rejuvenate the river within one month and complete the whole river revival project by March 13, 2023.
• NGT alleged that the Sukapaika river in Cuttack district became dead because of the closure of its mouth in the 1950s.
• Sukapaika river originates from Ayatur Village in Cuttack district and flows some 40 km before re-joining the Mahanadi River in Tarapur in the same district.
• When it was flowing freely, Sukapaika river acted as a source of drinking water, irrigation and other livelihood opportunities to over 425 villages under 26 gram panchayats.
• Residents of these villages cultivated potato, tomato, cauliflower etc., and were involved in fisheries. These economic activities have ceased to be lucrative after the closure of the river’s mouth.
• In 1952, the Odisha government blocked the starting point of the river with an embankment to prevent flooding in the delta of Sukapaika.
• In 1957, two major projects – Hirakud Dam and Naraj barrage – were built on Mahanadi River to curb flooding. However, the embankment at the starting point of Sukapiaka river was not removed, leaving the distributary completely dependent on rainwater.
• Since the river has lost its water holding capacity, it remains dry for almost the whole year. This has negatively affected half-a-million people in the villages in the region. The riverbed has been eroded and is invaded by hyacinth. Several encroachments have started taking place along the course of the dead river over the years and the entire riverbed was converted into a dumping ground for solid and liquid wastes.

ABOUT THE RIVER:

Sukapaika is one of the several distributaries of the mighty Mahanadi river in Odisha. It branches away from the Mahanadi at Ayatpur village in Cuttack district and flows for about 40 kilometres (km) before rejoining its parent river at Tarapur in the same district. In the process, it drains a large landmass comprising over 425 villages under 26 gram panchayats in three blocks.

 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. INDIA LOCKS DEAL WITH ARMENIA TO EXPORT MISSILES, ROCKETS AND AMMUNITION

THE CONTEXT: In a significant move to boost India’s defence export, the country has signed an export order for missiles, rockets, and ammunition to Armenia because the Asian nation is engaged in a border conflict with Azerbaijan.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to sources, the value of the contracts has not been revealed yet, however, it is estimated that military equipment worth over ₹2,000 crore will be exported to the country in the coming months.
• Earlier this month, the government-to-government route was used to ink a number of contracts for the supply of arms and ammunition to Armenia.
• “This order includes six additional first-ever export of the indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket This weapon, which is already in service with the Indian Army, has been designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by private sector companies in the country”.
• In addition to this, the anti-tank rockets, and ammunitions will also be supplied from India to Amenia under the bundled deal.
• Over the past few years, India has been making significant efforts to increase military weapons exports, with policy reforms, and active support of the central government to secure overseas orders.
• Meanwhile, the government has recently said that India’s exports have grown by 334 per cent within five years, and the country is now exporting to over 75 countries its defence products. The country has also witnessed the commissioning of its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in Kochi.
• According to sources , the trend that had prevailed for the last 75 years. Since the beginning, India has continued to be one of the largest importers of defence products in the world. He expressed the need to reverse this trend and make India a top exporter of defence products across the world.

About Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher

• The Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launcher developed by DRDO. It is currently used by the Indian Army, especially at the international borders with Pakistan and China.
• This indigenously developed rocket launcher is capable of locating the enemy launchers and tracking the incoming artillery shells, mortar rounds and rockets. One Pinaka has 6 launchers, 6 loader trucks, 6 replenishment vehicles, two command post-transporting vehicles and a vehicle to transport the meteorological radar to provide wind-related data.

 ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. FSI REPORT ON TIGER SAFARI PROJECT IN CORBETT TIGER RESERVE

THE CONTEXT: Thousands of trees were illegally cut down in the Corbett Tiger Reserve by the Uttarakhand government for the implementation of a safari project.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A survey by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) revealed that 6,093 trees were illegally cut down in the Corbett Tiger Reserve for the Pakhro tiger safari project.
• Only 163 trees were permitted to be cleared for this safari project.
• The FSI launched the survey after a complaint was filed by an environmental activist to the National Tiger Conservation Authority alleging that thousands of trees were being felled in and around the project areas.
• The Uttarakhand Forest Department has not accepted the findings made by the recently released FSI report and is seeking clarification on the timeline and the source of the satellite images and method for calculating the number of felled trees.
• Apart from the FSI, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change also found irregularities in the project’s implementation. They were set up investigating committees to probe these irregularities.
• Earlier, the Central Empowered Committee has asked the state government to submit its views on the findings of the different committees investigating the illegal clearing of forest areas and construction activities in the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the Kalagarh forest.
• It has also urged the state government to specify the reason behind the forest land being diverted for a tiger safari in Pakhro range, though it is not a site-specific activity.

About Corbett Tiger Reserve

• Corbett National Park and the neighbouring Sonanadi together make up the Corbett Tiger Reserve. It is famed for hosting the world’s highest density of tiger population.
• It houses 230 tigers, with 14 tigers per 100 sq km. The Corbett National Park was established as Hailey National Park in 1936 and was later renamed in honour of the famous naturalist Jim Corbett, who played a major role in the establishment of this national park. It was the first national park to come under Project Tiger.

4. FAST-MELTING ARCTIC ICE IS TURNING THE OCEAN ACIDIC, THREATENING LIFE

THE CONTEXT: A team of researchers has flagged the changing chemistry of the western region of the Arctic Ocean after discovering acidity levels increasing three to four times faster than ocean waters elsewhere.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The team also identified a strong correlation between the accelerated rate of melting ice and the rate of ocean acidification. The study, published in ‘Science’, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first analysis of Arctic acidification that includes data from 1994 to 2020.
• Scientists have predicted that by 2050, Arctic sea ice in this region will no longer survive the increasingly warm summers. As a result, the ocean’s chemistry will grow more acidic, creating life-threatening problems for the diverse population of sea creatures, plants and other living things that depend on a healthy ocean. Crabs, for example, live in a crusty shell built from the calcium carbonate prevalent in ocean water. Polar bears rely on healthy fish populations for food, fish and sea birds rely on plankton and plants, and seafood is a key element of many humans’ diets.
• Seawater is normally alkaline, with a pH value of around 8.1.
• First, the water under the sea ice, which had a deficit of carbon dioxide, now is exposed to the atmospheric carbon dioxide and can take it up freely.
• The seawater mixed with meltwater is light and can’t mix easily into deeper waters, which means the carbon dioxide is concentrated at the surface.
• The meltwater dilutes the carbonate ion concentration in the seawater, weakening its ability to neutralise the carbon dioxide into bicarbonate and rapidly decreasing ocean pH.

INTERNAL SECURITY

5. AFSPA EXTENDED IN NAGALAND, ARUNACHAL PRADESH

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for another six months.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts in Arunachal Pradesh and the areas along the Assam border, are declared as “disturbed areas” under Section 3 of the AFSPA 1958 for a period of six months from October 1,2022.
• In Tripura the Act was revoked by the MHA in 2015 and in Meghalaya from 1st April 2018.

About Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958

• The genesis of the law can be traced to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance 1942which was enacted by the British to subjugate the rebels in the country during the Quit India movement, particularly in Assam and Bengal .
• The law continues to be enforced in its new format as the Armed Forces

Provisions: 

• Under Section 3, the Central Government or the Governor of the State or administrator of the Union Territory can declare the whole or part of the State or Union Territory as a disturbed area.
• An area can be disturbed due to differences or disputes between members of different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities.
• Section 4 gives the Army powers to search premises and make arrests without warrants, to use force even to the extent of causing death, destroy arms/ammunition dumps, fortifications/shelters/hideouts and to stop, search and seize any vehicle.
• Section 6 stipulates that arrested persons and the seized property are to be made over to the police with the least possible delay.
• Section 7 offers protection of persons acting in good faith in their official capacity. The prosecution is permitted only after the sanction of the Central Government.

Rationale behind its imposition

• Effective functioning of forces in counter-insurgency / terrorist operations.
• Protection of members of Armed forces.
• Maintaining Law & Order.
• Security & sovereignty of the nation.

Criticisms

• Atrocities and human rights violations by security agencies.
• Against democratic regime & threat to Fundamental Rights
• Ineffectiveness in countering insurgency.
• Fake encounters (Santosh Hegde Committee) & create an atmosphere of impunity among security agencies.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES IN NEWS

6. THE EDUCATION MINISTRY LAUNCHES PM YOUNG AUTHORS MENTORING SCHEME YUVA 2.0

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Education launched YUVA 2.0 – Prime Minister’s Scheme for Mentoring Young Authors, a programme to train young and budding authors to promote reading, writing and book culture in the country, and project India and Indian writings globally.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The second edition of the Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors (YUVA) scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Education as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav or India @75 project.
• The scheme is a mentoring programme for young and budding authors below the age of 30.
• Its objective is to promote the culture of reading and writing across India and showcase Indian writing at the international level.
• It aims to bring the perspective of the Indian youth on the theme “Democracy (institutions, events, people, constitutional values past, present and future)”.
• It will benefit budding authors capable of writing on a wide-range of subjects focused on the promotion of Indian culture, heritage and knowledge across the globe.
• The launch of the latest edition of YUVA scheme comes after the first edition witnessed a huge participation from young authors in 22 different regional languages as well as in English.
• The theme for the inaugural edition was ‘National Movement of India’, with the focus on “Unsung Heroes”, “Role of Unknown Places in Freedom Movement” and other subjects.

About PM-YUVA scheme

• Pradhan Mantri – Mentorship’s Scheme for Young writers (PM-YUVA) was launched on May 29, 2021. It is being implemented by the National Book Trust (NBT), India. Under this initiative, 75 young authors will be chosen based on the manuscripts submitted. The selections will be made by a committee set up by the NBT.
• The chosen authors will get mentors who will guide and help develop the selected proposals into fully-complete books. The authors will be provided a scholarship of Rs.50,000 each month for a period of 6 months. 10 per cent of the royalty will be received by the authors on the publication and sale of the books.
• The published books will be translated into different Indian languages to promote Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat and boost cross-cultural and linguistic ties within India.

1. Mahatma Gandhi, the peacemaker: Gandhi considered the problem of peace as an ethical, rather than political, issue READ MORE
2. On Gandhi Jayanti, let’s remind ourselves of transformative power of our youth, need to tap into it READ MORE

1. Monsoon 2022 ends with filling up India’s major reservoirs READ MORE
2. Monsoon 2022 ends: 188 districts dry even after heavy rains in last week of September READ MORE

1. Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Parallax Relation? READ MORE
2. Freedom of conscience should be valued READ MORE  
3. On abortion, Supreme Court has listened to women READ MORE

1. Rights and duties are interrelated READ MORE
2. By recognising pregnant woman’s right to dignity and autonomy, Supreme Court has made informed decisions on reproductive health possible READ MORE
3. Why the greatest legacy of monarchical Britain is parliamentary democracy READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. First among equals READ MORE
2. Indore bags cleanest city award for sixth year, M.P ranks first among States READ MORE
3. Who is behind the Nord Stream pipeline leakages, and who gains from it? READ MORE
4. UNEP calls Nord Stream methane leak ‘biggest-ever’; plume over Europe fading READ MORE
5. Telangana scoops Swachh Survekshan Gramin, 2022 award READ MORE
6. Tokenisation for credit and debit card transactions: What is it, and how does it help you? READ MORE
7. India abstains on UNSC resolution condemning Russia’s ‘referenda’ READ MORE
8. Fast-melting Arctic ice is turning the ocean acidic, threatening life READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. Monsoon 2022 ends with filling up India’s major reservoirs READ MORE
2. Monsoon 2022 ends: 188 districts dry even after heavy rains in last week of September READ MORE
3. Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Parallax Relation? READ MORE
4. Freedom of conscience should be valued READ MORE  

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Rights and duties are interrelated READ MORE
2. By recognising pregnant woman’s right to dignity and autonomy, Supreme Court has made informed decisions on reproductive health possible READ MORE
3. Why the greatest legacy of monarchical Britain is parliamentary democracy READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. On abortion, Supreme Court has listened to women READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. UN Security Council reform an onerous task READ MORE
2. If India wants to support Sri Lankans, it must back extension of UN panel probing rights violations READ MORE

 GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Boxed in: As high prices restrain consumption, inflation control must be top priority READ MORE
2. The link between inflation and climate change READ MORE
3. Anti-poaching labour pacts need scrutiny READ MORE
4. Leading economies of the world are driving global instability. What can India do to retain its balance? READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. 5G is here: What lies ahead will become clearer with time but the possibilities are enormous READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Mahatma Gandhi, the peacemaker: Gandhi considered the problem of peace as an ethical, rather than political, issue READ MORE
2. On Gandhi Jayanti, let’s remind ourselves of transformative power of our youth, need to tap into it READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘Though fundamental duties are not enforceable constitutionally, they are as vital as fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution’. Argue the statement.
2. In India, the greatest legacy of monarchical Britain has been the ideas of parliamentary democracy and liberal law. Comment on the statement and compare the system of parliamentary democracy between India and Britain.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.
• Gandhi considered the problem of peace as an ethical, rather than political, issue.
• In an age of increasing ‘globalisation of selfishness’, there is an urgent need to read and practise the Gandhian social and political philosophy in order re-evaluate the concept of peace.
• It has upheld the right of all women to make their own reproductive decisions. It has recognised that deprivation of access to reproductive healthcare affects the dignity of women.
• If we have to tame food inflation, we will have to invest more in climate-smart agriculture, in precision farming, with high productivity and less damage to natural resources. Science and technologies can, of course, help us, but they cannot be scaled in a perverse policy ecosystem.
• We need to encourage the nation-builder and sewa leader within them so that they go on to spearhead a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and diversity.
• The CCI must shed its laissez faire approach to labour markets, with no-poach deals and moonlighting on the rise.
• Even in present-day India, Gandhi is greatly needed. As divisive forces prevail in our country, only Gandhi and ‘Gandhism’ are the most effective counter-measures to win over these.
• Though fundamental duties are not enforceable constitutionally, they are as vital as fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.
• If Gandhi and Ambedkar are indispensable to political thought today, it is because both are deeply committed to the figure of the minor, and to an equality centred around this figure. This is why we must study the antagonism between them.
• The Sri lanka’s economic crisis is also a political and human rights calamity. There can be no justice until the rights of ordinary Sri Lankans are safe.
• Only through sustained poverty alleviation programmes and policies directed at benefitting the common man economically, India can sustain its economic bull run for over a period of time.

50-WORD TALK

• Every year, since February 2009, diplomats from various countries ritually make statements on the question of equitable representation in the membership of the Security Council, but nothing changes. A broad list of issues relevant to the debate around the UNSC reform includes the proposed size of the expanded council, the question of veto, categories of membership, regional representation and the working methods.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.

THE CONTEXT: Recently, torrential rains that took place in Hyderabad have caused massive urban floods. In many Indian cities, the urban floods have become a frequent phenomenon in recent years.The scale of destruction has been unprecedented. This experience is not unique to the city of Hyderabad but something that cities across India have been experiencing in recent years. This article discusses about the urban flooding, causes, impacts and the possible solutions.

WHAT IS URBAN FLOODING?

Flooding in urban areas can be caused by flash floods, or coastal floods, or river floods, but there is also a specific flood type that is called urban flooding. It is different from normal floods, because

• Urban flooding is specific in the fact that the cause is a lack of drainage in an urban area. As there is little open soil that can be used for water storage nearly all the precipitation needs to be transport to surface water or the sewage system.
• High intensity rainfall can cause flooding when the city sewage system and draining canals do not have the necessary capacity to drain away the amounts of rain that are falling.
• Overburdened drainage, frenzied and unregulated construction, no regard to the natural topography and hydro-geomorphology all make urban floods a man-made disaster.

CAUSES

Natural causes

• Meteorological Factors- Heavy rainfall, cyclonic storms and thunderstorms causes water to flow quickly through paved urban areas and impound in low lying areas.
• Hydrological Factors- Overbank flow channel networks, occurrence of high tides impeding the drainage in coastal cities.
• Climate Change- Climate change due to various anthropogenic events has led to extreme weather events.

The rainfall received in Hyderabad in 2020 has been the highest for the month of October in a century.

Anthropological causes

• Unplanned Urbanization is the key cause of urban flooding. A major concern is blocking of natural drainage pathways through construction activity and encroachment on catchment areas, riverbeds and lake beds.
• Destruction of lakes is a major issue in India cities. Lakes can store the excess water and regulate the flow of water.
• Pollution of natural urban water bodies and converting them for development purposes has increased risk of floods.

Poor and old drainage system

Cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai rely on a century-old drainage system, covering only a small part of the core city.

• In the last 20 years, the Indian cities have grown manifold with its original built-up area.
• As the city grew beyond its original limits, not much was done to address the absence of adequate drainage systems.
• Inability to manage the city’s drainage systems is an another cause of urban flooding.

Incremental land use change

• Neglecting issues of incremental land use change, particularly of those commons which provide us with necessary ecological support — wetlands.
• This has led to creation of urban terrain which is incapable of absorbing, holding and discharging water.
• The number of wetlands has reduced to 123 in 2018 from 644 in 1956.
• Green cover is only 9 per cent, which ideally should have been at least 33 per cent.

Overlooking environmental regulations

Overlooking environmental regulations in mega-projects is fairly common in the country.

• Commonwealth Games Village (CWG) were built right on the Yamuna’s floodplain.
• The secondary runway of Chennai International Airport was also built right over the Adyar river. Most of the airport was constructed on the riverine floodplains, leading to massive flooding during the 2015 Chennai floods.
• Recent developments such as Andhra Pradesh’s Amaravati Capital City Project, had major areas proposed to be built on the floodplains of Krishna river.

IMPACTS OF URBAN FLOODS

• Economy- Damage to infrastructure, roads and settlements, industrial production, basic supplies, post disaster rehabilitation difficulties etc.
• Human population and wildlife– Trauma, loss of life, injuries and disease outbreak, unhygienic living conditions in slums, contamination of water etc.
• Environment- Loss of habitat, tree and forest cover, biodiversity loss and large scale greenery recovery failure.
• Transport and communication– Increased traffic congestion, disruption in rail services, disruption in communication- on telephone, internet cables causing massive public inconvenience.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

Holistic engagement

• Floods needs to be managed with concerted and focused investments of energy and resources.
• The Metropolitan Development Authorities, National Disaster Management Authority, State revenue and irrigation departments along with municipal corporations should be involved in such work together.
• Such investments can only be done in a mission mode organisation with active participation of civil society organisations at the metropolitan scale.

Developing Sponge Cities

• The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable so as to hold and use the water which falls upon it.
• Sponge cities absorb the rain water, which is then naturally filtered by the soil and allowed to reach urban aquifers.
• This allows for the extraction of water from the ground through urban or peri-urban wells.
• This water can be treated easily and used for city water supply.

Wetland Policy

There is a need to start paying attention to the management of wetlands by involving local communities.

• Terrain alteration needs to be strictly regulated and a ban on any further alteration of terrain needs to be introduced.
• To improve the city’s capacity to absorb water, new porous materials and technologies must be encouraged or mandated across scales.
• Examples of these technologies are bio-swales and retention systems, permeable material for roads and pavement, drainage systems which allow storm water to trickle into the ground, green roofs and harvesting systems in buildings.

EIAs and enforcement will remain vital to ensure that fragile wetlands and floodplains are not concretised.

Drainage planning

• Watershed management and emergency drainage plan should be clearly enunciated in policy and law.
• Urban watersheds are micro ecological drainage systems, shaped by contours of terrain.
• Detailed documentation of these Urban watersheds must be held by agencies where natural boundaries instead of governance boundaries (like wards) are used to come up with drainage plan.

Water sensitive urban design

• Methods should be adopted which takes into consideration the topography, types of surfaces (permeable or impervious), natural drainage and leave very less impact on the environment.
• Vulnerability analyses and risk assessments should form part and parcel of city master plans.
• In a changing climate, the drainage infrastructure (especially storm water drainage) has to be built considering the new ‘normals’.
• Tools such as predictive precipitation modelling can help do that and are also able to link it with the adaptive capacity of urban land use.

These can all be delivered effectively through an urban mission along the lines of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Smart Cities Mission.

CONCLUSION: Urban Flood management will not just help control recurring floods but also respond to other fault lines, provide for water security, more green spaces, and will make the city resilient and sustainable. We need to urgently rebuild our cities such that they have the sponginess to absorb and release water without causing so much misery and so much damage to the most vulnerable of our citizens

CASE STUDIES OF URBAN FLOODING

1. HYDERABAD FLOODS

Urban flooding has become a common occurrence these days in India. The latest victim of urban flooding is Hyderabad.

Basic information-The city as well Telangana received unusually excessive rainfall October 13-14, 2020, due to a deep depression that developed in the Bay of Bengal. Heavy damage to property, roads and human lives has been reported.

The population of the city has grown exponentially. It is 10 million today.

Geographical setting- Hyderabad is located on the banks of the Musi river. The Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar dams on the river, supply the water to the city.

Based on hydrology, present-day Hyderabad can be divided into Krishna and Godavari basins. Traditionally, all the rainwater falling in the catchment areas of Musi would discharge into Musi which is one of the 22 tributaries of the Krishna river. And newer localities to the west of Hyderabad, including Gachibowli and the IT corridor, are all in the catchment areas of the Godavari.In both Krishna and Godavari basins, the city has a network of lakes and drains which carry the excess water from one to another and then finally into the Musi and Majeera rivers.

Over the years, owing to the expansion of the city, the lakes were not in demand for their primary purposes of irrigation and drinking water. But they continued to be relevant for flood regulation.

Issue-The city of Hyderabad doesn’t usually get flooded due to monsoonal rain, which is spread over a long period. There is a natural system of flow of water from a high elevated area to a lower one. But Lakes in the town have shrunk due to encroachment. Discharge of sewage and industrial effluents, encroachments by government and private individuals, and decades of neglect had everyone thinking the river would never flow again. Most of the former waterways are open sewers now. But, on October 13, the river was in spate once again after a record downpour. Low-lying localities and colonies that were built on the lake beds and nullahs were submerged in no time. Many days later, hundreds of these colonies were still under water.

Large water bodies that existed for centuries have shrunk in size, encroachments have eaten into natural waterways, and stormwater drains get easily clogged.

Losses-As many as 33 lives have been lost to heavy rains and floods in the city, with the GHMC estimating that at least 37,409 families have been affected. The Municipal Administration minister pegged the city’s losses at Rs 670 crore.

2. MUMBAI FLOODS

Basic information-The 2005 Maharashtra floods impacted many parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai, a city located on the coast of the Arabian Sea, on the Western coast of India. The floods were caused by the eighth heaviest-ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 944 mm (37.17 inches) which lashed the metropolis on 26 July 2005, and intermittently continued for the next day.

Approximately 1,094 people died and city of Mumbai came to a standstill due to flooding.

Issues

• The present storm-water drainage system in Mumbai was put in place in the early 20th century and is capable of carrying only 25.1237 millimetres of water per hour which was extremely inadequate on a day when 993 mm of rain fell in the city. The drainage system was also clogged at several places.
• Haphazard Development- Development in certain parts of Mumbai is haphazard and buildings are constructed without proper planning. The drainage plans in northern suburbs is chalked out as and when required in a particular area and not from an overall point of view.
• Destruction of mangrove ecosystems- Mangrove ecosystems which exist along the Mithi River and Mahim Creek are being destroyed and replaced with construction. These ecosystems serve as a buffer between land and sea.
• Sewage and garbage dumps have also destroyed mangroves. The Bandra-Kurla complex in particular was created by replacing such swamps. The most acclaimed Mindspace CBD (INORBIT MALL) in Goregaon & Malad has been built by destroying a large patch of mangroves in Maharashtra.

3. CHENNAI FLOODS

Basic information-Chennai received 1,049 mm (41.3 in) of rainfall in November, the highest recorded since November 1918 when 1,088 mm (42.8 in) in of rainfall was recorded. On 1 December, heavy rains led to inundation in many areas of Chennai.

Chennai is built on flat coastal floodplains. Wetlands – including natural and artificial drains are the city’s insurance against heavy rains and cyclonic storm surges.

Issues-A study revealed how the city’s built-up area grew nine-fold – from 47 sq km in 1980 to 402 sq km in 2012 – even while area under wetlands declined from 186 sq km to 71 sq km during the same period. Between 1996 and 2015, more than 1,000 acres of this wetland was allegedly illegally diverted to accommodate industrial installations belonging to state-owned companies, including a large port and several coal-fired power plants.

The 2015 rains crippled the neighbourhoods drained by the creek. Some went under because power plants, coal ash ponds and coal yards blocked the flowing run-off from their habitations to the creek. Others were harmed by waters backing up far inland because their natural holding area – the backwaters – had been eaten into. The floods brought the refinery to a halt.

A parliamentary committee that enquired into the cause of the 2015 floods was categorical in its report that “encroachment of lakes and riverbeds played a major role in causing massive floods in Chennai”.

Impact-Power supplies were suspended to 60% of the city while several city hospitals stopped functioning. The Southern Railways cancelled major train services and Chennai International Airport was closed until 6 December.

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