The three weeks old Chennai Floods were not one single event, but actually 2 separate instances of water logging in low lying areas, with an almost dry spell of four days between them. The first was on 23-24 Nov 2015, when the metro city of Madras, now Chennai, received ~50 and 130 mm of rains respectively, and people returning home from work were stuck for hours because of waterlogged roads.
The second was the COP21 fame flooding of 30 Nov – 2 Dec 2015, when the city was inundated with ~25, 60, and 320 mm of rains. Coupled with the now acknowledged mismanagement of reservoir outflow, the city suffered unimaginably, unnecessarily. If the almost dry spell had been recognized for what it was, and prescribed reservoir management techniques had been applied in tandem, the city would have got away with one more ‘dunking’, and not a flooding.
Be that may, the point of this article is not about the rains, or the apportioning of blame. It is to point out the brilliance of the higher governance in the Indian Union. And the description of the rains and dry spells lays out the ground work for admiring the two eminently wise gentlemen who occupy the chairs of the Prime Minister of India, and the Environment Minister of India.
In between the rains, during the dry spell, our PM Narendra Modi spoke his mind on his monthly radio address to the nation, ‘Maan Ki Baat’ on Sunday, 29 Nov 2015. His exact words were, ‘We are seeing the impact of climate change now. The unseasonal rains resulted in floods in Tamil Nadu. In India, we have witnessed heavy rains in non-monsoon weather.’
That comment went unchallenged [except by yours truly with a tweet (copied to other social media) ‘Mr. PM, TN gets NE Monsoon, not SWM’ on 30 Nov.]
Thus I was bemused to read today that Modi’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar assured the Parliament of India, just yesterday that Modi’s Mind was not speaking true, and the Chennai Floods were ‘highly localized’ events, and not connected to Global Warming or Climate Change.
Javadekar's exact written words (as reported in The Hindu [http://bit.ly/1IlNOTZ]) are, ‘Extreme rainfall that occurred over coastal districts of Tamil Nadu is highly localised and is part of the natural variability of the Indian monsoon system. Although some studies have reported an increase in frequency and intensity of extremes in rainfall during the past 40-50 years, their attribution to global warming is not established.'
Wish both the wise men would confer and conclude just who is right. May be Bill Leak was right. When I saw his cartoon last week, I did not know whether to throw up, laugh, or think about it. One week later, I guess we all have to think about it.
The second was the COP21 fame flooding of 30 Nov – 2 Dec 2015, when the city was inundated with ~25, 60, and 320 mm of rains. Coupled with the now acknowledged mismanagement of reservoir outflow, the city suffered unimaginably, unnecessarily. If the almost dry spell had been recognized for what it was, and prescribed reservoir management techniques had been applied in tandem, the city would have got away with one more ‘dunking’, and not a flooding.
Be that may, the point of this article is not about the rains, or the apportioning of blame. It is to point out the brilliance of the higher governance in the Indian Union. And the description of the rains and dry spells lays out the ground work for admiring the two eminently wise gentlemen who occupy the chairs of the Prime Minister of India, and the Environment Minister of India.
In between the rains, during the dry spell, our PM Narendra Modi spoke his mind on his monthly radio address to the nation, ‘Maan Ki Baat’ on Sunday, 29 Nov 2015. His exact words were, ‘We are seeing the impact of climate change now. The unseasonal rains resulted in floods in Tamil Nadu. In India, we have witnessed heavy rains in non-monsoon weather.’
That comment went unchallenged [except by yours truly with a tweet (copied to other social media) ‘Mr. PM, TN gets NE Monsoon, not SWM’ on 30 Nov.]
Thus I was bemused to read today that Modi’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar assured the Parliament of India, just yesterday that Modi’s Mind was not speaking true, and the Chennai Floods were ‘highly localized’ events, and not connected to Global Warming or Climate Change.
Javadekar's exact written words (as reported in The Hindu [http://bit.ly/1IlNOTZ]) are, ‘Extreme rainfall that occurred over coastal districts of Tamil Nadu is highly localised and is part of the natural variability of the Indian monsoon system. Although some studies have reported an increase in frequency and intensity of extremes in rainfall during the past 40-50 years, their attribution to global warming is not established.'
Wish both the wise men would confer and conclude just who is right. May be Bill Leak was right. When I saw his cartoon last week, I did not know whether to throw up, laugh, or think about it. One week later, I guess we all have to think about it.
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