COUSE OF FLOOD IN ASSAM

COUSE OF FLOOD IN ASSAM

Here we will try to cover the artificial and natural causes of it. So first let’s try to catch the main artificial flood causes: –1. The wrong way to build houses: – The very first artificial cause is an improper way to build houses or buildings. Here, the best example is Guwahati. Have you ever visit Guwahati? If you visited ever then you may notice that the way of building houses or apartments is not so scientific in there. In that case rainy season, water can’t flow out from the living areas, especially from roads and drains. It blocked around the people’s houses and at the result, it creates an artificial flood. On the other hand, we have noticed that the city corporation authority is also not too much responsible minded for clearing drains time to time for better water circulation or making strict restrictions on building improper houses. This thing does not only work in case of Guwahati but most areas in Assam have the same problem. Before a few days ago I went to Guwahati for my UPSC exam. After completing my exam I went back to my home. Suddenly, the rain started there, I was shocked by what I had seen there.Within a few minutes {around 10 to 15} of rain, the roads of Guwahati filled by water and water. Recently a study shows that 80 percent of Guwahati roads have no drains that water can easily circulate. In that case, an artificial flood is not just a big deal there or we can consider it very common.

2. Deforestation: – We think that deforestation is only about cutting trees and destroying the forests or jungles completely. But is it the end of the definition of ‘Deforestation’? Maybe not! Because it also creates other problems too; two of them are ‘Flood’ and ‘Global warming’. But how? Here is how – Tress always keeps hold of the soil of a place and not let it be erased but when trees are removed from that particular land then it becomes quite difficult to keep that soil hold of. No matter how much do we human try with different methods but we can’t compete with nature. In that case, when it rains; the land starts to slide away and it makes the rivers, ponds, and water drain shallower. And finally, the resulting flood…flood…..flood. Deforestation is also another significant cause of flood in Assam. Due to less importance giving by government departments and soil-wood mafia’s Incitement forests are destroying every day and it making the chest of mighty Brahmaputra, Barak and their tributary rivers shallower. 
Over half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed since the 1960s, and every second, more than one hectare of tropical forests is destroyed or drastically degraded. This intense and devastating pressure on forests is not limited to the tropics – an estimated 3.7 million hectares of Europe’s forests are damaged by livestock, insects, diseases, forest fires, and other human-linked activities.
The world’s forests absorb 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, one-third of the annual CO2 released from burning fossil fuels. Forest destruction emits further carbon into the atmosphere, with 4.3–5.5 GtCO2eq/yr generated annually, largely from deforestation and forest degradation. Protecting and restoring this vast carbon sink is essential for mitigating climate change. Forests also play a crucial role in climate change adaptation efforts. They act as a food safety net during climate shocks, reduce risks from disasters like coastal flooding, and help regulate water flows and microclimates. Improving the health of these forest ecosystems and introducing sustainable management practices increase the resilience of human and natural systems to the impacts of climate change.
Nature-based solutions such as forest landscape restoration (FLR) can help countries reverse the effects of deforestation and degradation and regain the ecological, social, climatic and economic benefits of forests. FLR brings people together to identify and implement the most appropriate restoration interventions in a landscape. It seeks to accommodate the needs of all land users and multiple land uses. FLR is not just about planting trees – it can include multiple activities like agroforestry, erosion control and natural forest regeneration. FLR also addresses the underlying drivers of forest loss. For example, it provides farming communities living in and around forests with knowledge on sustainable agricultural methods that do not rely on destroying forests. Countries and other land owners are committing to FLR through the Bonn Challenge – a global effort to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030, launched by IUCN and Germany in 2011. The Bonn Challenge has so far generated pledges from governments and organisations to restore over 156 million hectares. 

Now, let’s try to move further for its natural causes: – 1. Land sliding: – 
This is absolutely true that human itself a big cause of land sliding but we can’t blame human as only the cause, because of nature equally responsible for it too. Here is the deal – Each year due to heavy natural land sliding Assam loses hundreds of km its land areas. Example: – Majuli. Did you know before the 19 century Majuli was the largest river island in this planet but due to high soil erosion, it lost its old identity? This is quite threatening but probably someday Majuli will completely be extinct in the heart of the mighty Brahmaputra river. On the other hand, this soil erosion makes rivers shallower, which later helps in creating a heavy flood.
2. High Rainfall:– The 2 very natural cause is high rainfall. Due to the presence in tropical climate each year there are 1927 mm rain falls in Assam. This is really too much for any land to suffer from flood problem, especially where land area is quite less than water areas. On the other hand, Assam state presence is in the plain area, not whole hilly. That is why water can’t easily flow out from it. In that case, I consider this is the 2 major natural cause of it that we can’t ignore.
3. The number of rivers: – We know that Assam has three main rivers systems, here one is the Brahmaputra and another is Barak and the third one is Manas. But these three giants’ river base has many other different tributary rivers. Here the mighty Brahmaputra has alone 13. According to an estimate, there are totally more than 50 tributary rivers in Assam (Including of the Brahmaputra, Barak, and Manas). In this case, when it heavily rains in the land the rivers easily started to overflow from the boundary and it creates a flood. However, Barak and Manas do not create a lot of problems but the Brahmaputra River is highly responsible for it.