The Met Warning!

The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast, according to media reports, that there will be heavy rainfall from June to September in J & K this year. According to these reports, this July would be the wettest month. Subsequently, in a clarification, Mr. Sonam Lotus, the Director of the local Met Office said that there was no prediction of heavy rainfall in Kashmir from June till September. There will be normal rains and there is no need to panic. We may take his word but the recent climatic changes all over including freak dust storms and so on, make one keep the fingers crossed! Incidentally, this disclosure of Met Office reminds one of the rains of 2014 which too were predicted well in advance by the Met office and subsequently resulted in the most disastrous flood in a century! Normally, there would have been no panic had the government not wasted all these four years by neglecting the implementation of the flood prevention measures. Almost all the concerned experts had categorically stated that there was urgent need to increase the water carrying capacity of the Jhelum River and its Flood Spill-Over Channel. These had been neglected for a long time and the disaster of 2014 was in a way of our own making. The denudation of the mountain slopes by timber smugglers in league with the authorities; virtual eating away of water bodies by encroachments; filling up of the Srinagar canals by making a road for security considerations and finally total neglect of the River and its Spill-Over Channel by failure of ensuring continuous dredging as used to be done during the Maharaja’s time all combined to give us the disastrous flood. Unfortunately, a repeat of the same continues to loom large as nothing concrete has been done to prevent it. In the month of March this year just a couple of days of rains had created a flood scare. The River was flowing full! Imagine what would happen if we get five days of continuous rains like the last time? Another disastrous flood which may be worse than the last one. Incidentally, during the recent rains one noticed that the water in the River was moving with a very slow speed! This could be because of no dredging having been done in the downstream areas which has always been a priority. There is very short time for the authorities to wake up and ensure preventive measures on a war footing. They need to take an overview with experts in an open forum with public participation. The sooner they do so the better it would be for all.