INDEX

1. Part 1a) Earlier National Disaster in India.

b) Kerala is India’s best – Governed state

c) National Disaster in international megacities like Bangkok.

1-2

2. Part 2a) In 2015 Chennai also sank during excessive rainfall & floods

Reasons.

b) Chennai Flood

c) India Ignored Warnings of Kerala flood disasterd) Disaster authorities see Kerala laxity on dam water as one

reason for calamitye) Kerala priests and politicians unite to oppose Gadgil

report on Western Ghatsf) Blame on wetland loss & construction

g) The Prescriptions for the Western Ghats

h) To Put Kerala Back on its feet

i) Offerings for the People

3-9

3. Part 3Solutionsa) Runoff water management new mantra for planners

b) Emergency disaster management plan for floods

c) Not just Kerala, no scientific dam water management across

India

d) There is dire need for cooperation between neighboring states.

e) Despite Srinagar, Chennai, Kerala, Urban flooding unit yet to

be set up

f) Kerala to tap Diaspora for funds to rebuild state

g) Implement Gadgil report with Sincerity

h) Kerala’s Unique Experiment: Women’s group farms

i) Kerala temple wealth to be used to rebuild state

10-13

Best governed Kerala State collapses due to man Made disaster:By Dr. G.C. Dutt, IPS

Earlier National Disaster struck in the following places:-2005 – Bombay2013 – Uttarkhand2014 – Kasmir2015 – Channai

It is surprising that Kerala was considered best governed state:Kerala is India's best-governed state, says report Kerala best-governed state, Tamil Nadu second best Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar ranked the lowest

Kerala stands as the best-governed state in the country and Karnataka is in the fourth position, said the PublicAffairs Index 2018 released by the think tank Public Affairs Centre (PAC) here.

"Kerala has topped the Public Affairs Index (PAI) for 2018 as the best-governed state for the third consecutiveyear since 2016 among large states," said Bengaluru-based PAC at an event in the city on Saturday evening torelease its third annual PAI.

Released annually since 2016, the index examines governance performance in the states through a data-basedframework, ranking them on social and economic development they are able to provide.Founded in 1994 by renowned Indian economist and scholar late Samuel Paul, the think tank works to mobilisea demand for better governance in the country.

As a young country with growing population, India needs to assess and address its developmental challenges,said the Chairman of PAC, K Kasturirangan, on the occasion.

"The PAI 2018 is one example of a data-based framework that provides some basis, even if rudimentary, toassess the performance of states in India," added Kasturirangan, the former Chairman of Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO).

The think tank has undertaken the study across all the Indian states considering them across 10 themes such asessential infrastructure, support to human development, social protection, women and children as well as lawand order.

"The index provides a multi-dimensional and comprehensive matrix that attempts to capture the complexities ofgoverning the plural and diverse people of this sub-continent," added Senior Fellow at PAC CK Mathew.

A total of 30 focus subjects and 100 indicators were measured to derive the PAI, relying solely upongovernment data.

The PAC said it was not keen to access private data sources that may be interpreted as "biased".This year's PAI also included a separate index on the children of India, giving a measure of how child-friendlyeach of the states are.

Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram topped the index on being the states to provide better livingconditions for all children.It is obvious environment pollution, carbon footprint, ecological degradation, deforestation was not part of theparameters judged by the public Affairs Centre.

Similar Situations have arisen in international megacities like Bangkok.Bangkok Struggles To Stay Afloat Amid GlobalWarming, Rising Sea Levels

As Bangkok prepares to host climate-change talks, the sprawling city of more than 10 million is itself under siege fromthe environment, with dire forecasts warning it could be partially submerged in just over a decade.

A preparatory meeting begins Tuesday in Thailand's capital for the next UN climate conference, a crunch summit inPoland at the end of 2018 to set rules on reducing greenhouse emissions and providing aid to vulnerable countries.

As temperatures rise, abnormal weather patterns -- like more powerful cyclones, erratic rainfall, and intense droughts andfloods -- are predicted to worsen over time, adding pressure on governments tasked with bringing the 2015 Paris climatetreaty to life.Bangkok, built on once-marshy land about 1.5 metres (five feet) above sea level, is projected to be one of the world'shardest hit urban areas, alongside fellow Southeast Asian behemoths Jakarta and Manila.

"Nearly 40 percent" of Bangkok will be inundated by as early as 2030 due to extreme rainfall and changes in weatherpatterns, according to a World Bank report.

Currently, the capital "is sinking one to two centimetres a year and there is a risk of massive flooding in the near future,"said Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace.

Seas in the nearby Gulf of Thailand are rising by four millimetres a year, above the global average.The city "is already largely under sea level", said Buakamsri.

Today, the government is scrambling to mitigate the effects of climate change, constructing amunicipal canal network of up to 2,600 kilometres with pumping stations and eight undergroundtunnels to evacuate water if disaster strikes.

Part 2In 2015 Chennai also sank during excessive rainfall & floods Reasons:1. Mindless development of Chennai to blame, lowlands built up, storm water drains choked water exits

blocked.2. Chennai has 1.5 lakh illegal structures3. 300 water bodies have disappeared4. Flooded areas, Mudichur and Velachery, have come up on Wetlands or river basins.5. Velachery and Pallikaranai flooded because of concretization of wetlands.6. 5,550 hectares of swamp converted to IT corridor, only 10% of wetland saved7. No storm water drain network in Suburbs like Tambaram, Sriperambudur and Ambattur8. City has 882 Km of Storm water drains, no storm water drain in Suburbs.

Chennai floods: Were babus lax?

The flood that ravaged Chennai last week was not a natural disaster, but one caused by the state bureaucracy’sfailure to regulate release of water from Chembarambakkam reservoir (lake) in the outskirts of the city.

Those privy to developments in the state secretariat during the last week of November say that in the wake ofinternational weather forecast agencies predicting 500mm of rain for Chennai on December 1 and 2, publicworks department (PWD) officials had advised the PWD secretary and other senior bureaucrats on November26 to bring down the water level in the reservoir from 22ft to below 18ft so the lake could absorb heavy inflowfour days later.

But the proposal to release lake water was caught in bureaucratic red tape. Sources said the PWD secretarywaited for chief secretary’s nod to open the sluice gates — and whose nod the chief secretary was waiting forstill remains a mystery.

India IgnoredWarnings Of Kerala Flood Disaster, Say Experts

Top environment experts who predicted devastating floods would hit Kerala, today said their warnings wentunheeded by politicians eager to fast-track money-making projects.

Kerala has been battered by the worst floods in almost a century that have killed more than 410 people since themonsoon started in June.

Kerala is criss-crossed by 44 rivers and famed for its backwaters, a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes that runparallel to the Arabian Sea -- creating an environmentally sensitive region with many unique species of plantsand animals.

Disaster authorities see Kerala laxity on dam waters as one reason for calamity

Even as Kerala reels from nature’s fury and the Centre rushes in more rescue teams, a recent flood hazard indexprepared by disaster management authorities under the Union home ministry ranked Kerala above Assam,Gujarat and Odisha among top 10 states vulnerable to floods.

The Kerala government has decided to tap the state's diaspora living across the world for funds to rebuild theflood-devastated state.

The floods have displaced 14.5 lakh people and destroyed standing crops on 57,000 hectares.

Muralee Thummarukudy, a United Nations disaster response expert, and ecologist Madhav Gadgil, warned inreports back as far as 2011 that a mega-monsoon was inevitable and that the state was ill-prepared.

Critics say Kerala and the centre have ignored environmental concerns as they push power plants and coalmines, hotel resorts and new housing.

Lakes and wetlands that soak up floods have disappeared, and new concrete buildings concentrate excess waterin certain areas and make it harder to drain away.

Mr Thummarukudy predicted a flood disaster in Kerala in a 2013 article that called for changes in land use.Thousands of lives were lost in a 1924 flood in the region and Mr Thummarukudy said repeats often come 50 or100 years later.

"Change in land use planning is always difficult in every country because both private property rights and largeamounts of money are involved. So I was not surprised that such changes were not made," he told AFP.

In recent years, Kerala governments have aggressively promoted the state's palm tree-lined beaches and lushplantations to draw international tourists, and foreign arrivals doubled in 10 years to hit more than a million in2017.

But the rush for revenue has led to violations of coastal planning regulations.

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who suggested a ban on new industrial and mining activities in Kerala in a 2011report, said man-made problems had played a key role in the disaster.

But political and corporate lobbying meant the recommendations were ignored and resorts for the wealthy havemushroomed along coasts and rivers.

"Unfortunately, our state governments are in collusion with vested interests that do not want any environmentallaws to be implemented," Mr Gadgil told AFP.

"Our recommendations would have been accepted in any law-abiding society. But we have a lawless societyand extremely poor governance," he said.

Kerala priests and politicians unite to oppose Gadgil report on Western Ghats

Politicians of all hues and the Christian church had sworn to oppose the proposed decision of the UnionMinistry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to implement the report of the Western Ghats EcologyExpert Panel (WGEEP), headed by environmentalist Madhav Gadgil.

MoEF's move followed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) fixing November 12 as the deadline for the MoEFto clarify its position on accepting the WGEEP report. NGT's deadline came on October 8, after its orderspassed in April to implement the NGEEP within three weeks went unheeded.

The Kerala State Government, which sought the Supreme Court's stay on the implementation of NGT'sdirective, received a snub on October 8 when the apex court dismissed its petition on the same day.

The NGEEP report envisages declaration of 37 per cent of the Ghats as 'Ecologically Fragile'.

Following this, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has called an emergency all-party meeting to formulate the

state's response to MoEF's move. The Opposition Left Democratic Front has called a hartal in Idukki district -located in the Western Ghats - to protest.

Pointing out that the environment and ecology of the Western Ghats were under serious threat from humaninterference, the WGEEP had called for a spate of strict measures intended to protect the ranges, classified as aworld heritage site by the United Nations. But an all-party meeting in Kerala and the Congress-led UnitedDemocratic Front (UDF) government held last year asked the central government to reject the report.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, the state's largest church which accounts for the maximum number offarmers living in villages located in Western Ghats, too had strongly opposed the report. Both the Congress andthe CPI(M) issued specific statements rubbishing the WGEEP report, saying it did not consider the livelihoodissues of thousands of people who lived there.

"We will physically beat back anyone who comes to our area to implement thisreport" threatened PC George, MLA and chief whip of the ruling Congress-led UnitedDemocratic Front government.

An all party meeting had earlier asked the central government not to implement the report. "The report willcompletely stall the state's development in the name of conservation" said the committee. The most seriousobjection raised by the parties was regarding the classification of ecologically fragile zones, where strictregulations were sought by the Gadgil committee on habitation and development. The Committee directed theState and Central Government not to issue environmental clearance to any project coming in the EcologicallySensitive Zone 1 and 2.

In July, the NGT had held that the states were statutorily obliged to protect the environment and ecology ofWestern Ghats. This was based on a petition by Goa Foundation, a NGO seeking orders to be issued to MoEF toimplement the NGEEP report.

The CPI(M) criticized the report saying its implementation would stall all the proposed power projects inthe state which woiuld lead to a severe power crisis in Kerala. CPI(M) was particularly miffed by the WGEEP'sobjections to the proposed Athirappalli Hydroelectric project.

The Syro Malabar church even suggested an international conspiracy behind the WGEEP. "If the reportis implemented thousands of people living in at least 100 villages would lose their livelihood for they all fall inthe so called ecologically most fragile zone according to WGEEP" said a church spokesperson

Yes, the rains in August were about 46% above the average, but Kerala's rivers could have handled most of it ifthe landscape had not been subjected to gang rape by politicians, administrators, mining barons and the buildermafia. There would have been some damage, certainly, but this kind of apocalypse could have been avoided.

If only the Centre and the state govt. had paid heed to the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil reportof 2011. After a painstaking, two year ground survey of the Western Ghats Gadgil had identified the mainactivities which were destroying the natural balance of the Ghats: mining, quarrying, illegal construction,deforestation and encroachment of the flood plains of the rivers.

He noted that 25% of the 1,64,248 sq. kms of the WG had already been lost and recommended that 64% or120,000 sq. kms be declared an eco-sensitive zone where none of the above activities, plus hydel projects,should be permitted.

All six states trashed the report and the centre appointed another committee- the Kasturirangan Committee -to give a fresh report. The gentleman was a strange choice to begin with and it gave the game away- a

distinguished space scientist he probably knew even less about environmental matters than Mr. Javadekar andMahesh Sharma, the previous and current union Ministers for Environment. It was clear that what was expectedfrom him was a "political" report and not a scientific one, and he obliged. He reduced the ESZ to 37% or 60000sq. kms, half of Mr. Gadgil's recommendation.

This was further reduced by executive fiat to 45000 sq. kms. by Mr. Javadekar and he also allowed mining,construction and hydel projects to continue. And here's the shocking clincher- even this eviscerated decision hasnot yet been implemented ! Is it any wonder then that Kerala's lovely rivers ( all of which originate from theWG and flow westwards to the Arabian Sea) have been choked with debris and landslides from denudedmountain slopes, its floodplains strangled with all kinds of unregulated construction development, its damssilted ? The correct nomenclature for the current floods is neither Man- made Disaster nor Natural Disaster butPolitician- Made Disaster, with Virappa Moily and Javadekar being the presiding deities.

There is a second cause for this calamity which has not yet been emphasised but will in the coming days:indiscriminate construction of dams and their incompetent operation. Kerala has 80 dams of which 39 are majorones. Of the latter, 36 opened their flood gates almost simultaneously precisely at the exact moment when therainfall was at its most intense, releasing tens of lakhs of cusecs into rivers already drowning in their ownwaters.

The contribution of these dams to the flooding of the state should not be underplayed or passed off as a routineoperational hazard- by some estimates they may have been responsible for 40% to 60% of the floods.

These dams were meant to prevent floods but have done just the opposite. The last great flood in Kerala was in1924 when there were no dams at all, but the damage was much less than now. This one fact itself speaks foritself.

Why does a small state, with abundant water availability, need 80 dams ? Second, why did the govt. or thoseoperating these dams not heed the warning of the IMD that very heavy rains were expected in the second weekof August ? The last intense spell of rains had subsided by the end of July and the dam reservoirs were alreadyfull to capacity.

The New Indian Express has reported on 23.8.2018 that Tamil Nadu had warned the Kerala govt. both in Mayand June that the reservoirs were filling up and a phased release of water should be initiated immediately. This,along with the IMD forecast should have prompted the dams to gradually release some of the stored waterduring the ten day window of relatively fair weather in the beginning of August, if not earlier. Not doing so wasa criminal error of judgment, and the panic driven opening of the floodgates later was an inevitability.

Water is an inventory for dams, whether it is used for irrigation or for power generation, or both, as is usuallythe case. Dam authorities therefore do not want to waste this inventory, for every cusec of water has a monetaryvalue. But water stored in dams is also a potentially massively destructive force if released in an unplanned anduncalibrated way ( as it was in Kerala).

Scientific management of dams therefore demands that there must be proper, real time meteorological and floodforecasting data which could help in deciding on water releases. Unfortunately, Kerala has access to neither:IMD data is patchy at best and, even worse, the Central Water Commission or National Flood Forecastingnetwork has no stations in Kerala. They have NOW decided to set them up.

The bare fact is that there was criminal mismanagement of Kerala's dams. A CAG audit report quoted inthe 20th August issue of Down to Earth magazine pointed out that none of the dams have either an EmergencyManagement Plan or even an O+M manual.

Not that the mismanagement of dams is unique to Kerala alone. A 2016 CAG report reveals that of the 5254

dams in India Emergency Management Plans exist for only 7% of them; in 8 out of 17 flood prone states thereare no integrated flood management plans for river basins either.

Blame on wetland loss & constructionKerala's geography - highlands giving way through steep slopes to midlands and coastal areas within a narrowstrip of land - makes the state vulnerable to the risks linked to heavy rainfall. Environmental experts say thestate's land has also lost its capacity to absorb water.

"Construction projects, roads, parking lots, even paved footpaths - they all reduce water infiltration into theland," said N.B. Narasimha Prasad, former executive director of the Centre for Water Resources Developmentand Management, Kozhikode.

Thekkiniyil Gangadharan, president of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, a people's science movement, citesgovernment figures showing the loss of wetlands, from 8.5 lakh hectares in the 1980s to the present-dayestimate of about 1.9 lakh hectares.

"Along with the loss of the wetlands, Kerala has also lost many hillocks to construction and to quarryingactivities," Gangadharan said. "We've seen widespread landslides this past week, many likely due to the soilerosion from such activities."

A KSSP study, relying on the state government figures, found that Kerala has about 75 lakh families but 85 lakhbuilt-up homes. "Every year, 2.7 lakh new buildings or flats are constructed, people are investing wealth in realestate - there is an impact on the environment," Gangadharan said.

The Gadgil panel report had identified a range of illegal activities, including unauthorised quarrying,inappropriate construction close to riverbanks and violations of wetlands protection rules.

Officers and specialists now admit to some miscalculation right here. Ideally, some quantity of water ought tohave been progressively launched from the reservoirs as the storage rose. Each dam has what known as a ‘rulecurve’, which mandates the quantity of water to be launched when a sure degree is reached. However damoperators in Kerala appear to have ignored that, probably in their want to hold the reservoir ranges full evenafter the monsoon season. Solely the water meant for irrigation canals and consuming used to movement out ofthe reservoirs and, as rains would subside, the water ranges have been by no means in hazard of being breached.The gates of the Idukki dam, for instance, had not been opened for the final 26 years.

This year, nevertheless, the water ranges continued to rise in the reservoirs due to persevering with rains,leaving the operators with no choice however to open the sluice gates as soon as the full capability was reached.This led to large quantities of water being launched at a time when it was additionally raining heavily.

The state of affairs was compounded additional by the delay in releasing waters from the Mullaperiyar dam inTamil Nadu. Right here too, water was ultimately launched, inflicting additional flooding in Idukki which isdownstream.

The unfolding of the present disaster can also be being blamed on the speedy urbanisation, deforestation, andcreation of latest settlements in low-lying areas. As a result of only a few, if any, reservoir waters have beenbeing launched into the major channel of rivers for a number of years now, the carrying capability of thoserivers has additionally decreased. Numerous new habitations and enterprise institutions have come up close toor on the flood-plains. These have been the first ones to be inundated when the rivers acquired flooded this yr.Even the Kochi airport, which obtained flooded and has been closed for operation until August 26, is situatedvery shut to the flood plains of certainly one of the rivers.

The prescriptions for the Western GhatsWhat did the Gadgil Committee say?It defined the boundaries of the Western Ghats for the purposes of ecological management. The total area in thisboundary came to 1,29,037 square km, running about 1.490 km north to south, with a maximum width of 210km in Tamil Nadu and minimum of 48 km in Maharashtra. It proposed that this entire area be designated asecologically sensitive area (ESA). Within this area, smaller regions were to be identified as ecologicallysensitive zones (ESZ) I, II or III based on their existing condition and nature of threat. It proposed to divide thearea into about 2,200 grids, each approximately 9 km × 9 km, of which 75 per cent would fall under ESZ I or IIor under already existing protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries or natural parks.

It recommended:Ban on cultivation of genetically modified in entire area Plastic bags to be phased out in three years No new special economic zones or hill stations to be allowed Ban on conversion of public lands to private lands, and on diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes in

ESZ I and II No new mining licences in ESZ I and II area No new dams in ESZ I No new thermal power plants or large scale wind power projects in ESZ I No new polluting industries in ESZ I and ESZ II areas No new railway lines or major roads in ESZ I and II areas Strict regulation of tourism Cumulative impact assessment for all new projects like dams, mines, tourism, housing Phase-out of all chemical pesticides within five to eight years in ESZ I and ESZ II

The committee proposed a Western Ghats Ecology Authority to regulate these activities in the area.

What was the need for the subsequent Kasturirangan Committee?None of the six concerned states agreed with the recommendations of the Gadgil Committee, which submittedits report in August 2011 (its official public release was cancelled). Suggestions and comments were receivedfrom a number of others as well. In August 2012, then Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan constituted aHigh-Level Working Group on Western Ghats under Kasturirangan to “examine” the Gadgil Committee reportin a “holistic and multidisciplinary fashion in the light of responses received” from states, central ministries andothers. This committee submitted its report in April 2013.Its report revealed that of the nearly 1,750 responses it had examined, 81% were not in favour of the Gadgilrecommendations. In particular, Kerala had objected to the proposed ban on sand mining and quarrying,restrictions on transport infrastructure and wind energy projects, embargos on hydroelectric projects, and inter-basin transfer of river waters, and also the complete ban on new polluting industries.

So, what did the Kasturirangan Committee say?It broadened the definition of Western Ghats and included a total of 1,64,280 square km in it. It then classified itas comprising cultural landscape and natural landscape. It said nearly 60% of the Western Ghats was culturallandscape, where human settlements, agriculture and plantations existed. The remaining was natural landscape,of which the “biologically rich” area was only 37% or about 60,000 sq km. It was only this part that thecommittee said needed to be classified as ecologically sensitive area (ESA)Its main recommendations for ESA

Ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining No new thermal power projects, but hydro power projects allowed with restrictions Ban on new polluting industries

Building and construction projects up to 20,000 sq m was to be allowed but townships were to be banned Forest diversion could be allowed with extra safeguards

What was finally decided?Last year, the Environment Ministry issued a draft notification, demarcating an area of 56,285 sq km in theWestern Ghats as ESA. This was slightly less than the 59,940 sq km recommended by the Kasturirangancommittee. In Kerala, specifically, the Kasturirangan committee had proposed an area of 13,108 square km aspart of ESA. This was brought down to 9,993.7 sq km at the insistence of Kerala government.