It’s not just the geographical conditions that have led to recurring floods in Eastern India. Discuss and also suggest measures to tackle this menace.

Floods are an adverse meteorological event wherein an excessive amount of water gets accumulated in an area & is unable to leave causing submergence.

As per IPCC report; over 2 times more floods are occurring per year since the 2000’s. But the devastating impact is also due to human action & our pattern of settlements which have increased the risk.

Risks due to topography features:

• Heavy rainfall by the Bay of Bengal branch of monsoon.
• Nature of soil encourages course of river to shift.
• These regions lie in the flood plain areas.
• Many rivers, such as Kosi, Ganga, and Brahamputra.

Non-topographical features:

• Messy Urbanisation into flood prone areas has aggravated the issue.
• Destruction of natural embankments like trees, Mangroves, & events such as deforestation, desertification & soil erosion have reduced our capability.
• No ‘proactive’ disaster management planning. Instead we are ‘response-centric’.
• NDRF in Bihar is less staffed & less funded.
• Mitigation funds have not been setup.

Way forward:

• Ending dual structure in disaster management.
• Setting up of mitigation fund.
• Scheme for relocation of people in low lying areas.

Thus with these measures, we will be able to fulfil our commitments under the Sendai framework.