Northeast region no more immune to natural disasters
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 02, 2025 -

Imphal River breached, rescues ops underway on May 31 2025 :: Pix - Chronicle News

ABOUT a decade back, with exception of Assam, the northeast region used to be relatively free from massive flooding regardless of the region recording one of the highest rainfalls in the country every year.

Compared to Assam, where the mighty Brahmaputra river causes flood havoc almost every year, the other states faced no serious threats from flood-induced natural calamities.

Such calmness during the monsoons even helped enhance the region's profile as one of the favourite destinations for domestic tourists when the rest of the country faced harsh summer months.

However, the pre-monsoon rainfall continuing to lash all parts of the region and claiming the lives of 27 people as on Saturday ring out the grave message about growing severity of the impact of the global warming phenomenon.

At the global level, temperatures are rising, ocean currents are becoming turbulent, and extreme weather events are becoming worse as a result of decline in the volume of global sea ice.

For years, experts have been pointing out that extreme weather events around the world are being affected by changes in the Earth's climate and raising frequency and intensity of devastating wildfires, years-long droughts, heavy rainfall, severe flooding, record-breaking heat waves on land and at sea, and widespread flooding during storms, thereby providing substantial evidences for the local governments to act when there is still time.

Regardless of steps taken up at the government level to slow down the impact of global warming, the frequencies of floods and droughts across the world testify that more efforts are inevitable to prevent devastation from natural calamities.

Notably, in-spite of the global trend of human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, causing rapid increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases which act like a blanket, trapping heat and warming the Earth, consequently resulting in faster melting of ice on land, changing weather patterns, and affecting the water cycle, the northeast region had been relatively safe from prevalence of such extreme weather conditions.

The monsoon woes, in particular, in the mountainous region used to be limited to landslides choking supply of essential commodities and hindering movement of the people, unlike the present situation of the hilly parts witnessing massive landslides and the plains remaining the grip of devastating flooding.

While large-scale deforestation in the mountainous region is considered the primary cause for the flood situation one can't ignore the fact that adverse weather conditions, as an outcome of global warming, will continue to hit the region and wreak havoc of unprecedented scale in the coming years as well.

The government authorities might chalk up strategies to lessen impact from flood-related devastation but it is unlikely that institutional efforts would reap fruit with immediate effect as serious damage has already been done to the natural environment.

For instance, successive governments of Manipur had been implementing projects to strengthen the banks of major rivers, including eviction of unauthorised structures along the river banks and construction of retaining walls at vulnerable points of these rivers.

Regardless of the efforts to fortify the river banks, flooding during the pre and post monsoon seasons in the state is generally due to overflowing of the river water or breaching of the banks caused by massive volume of water, signifying continuous denuding of the natural forests.