Floods in Northern India : A Deluge of Devastation
Heavy rainfall has brought Northwest India to a standstill, with several states facing severe flooding and flash flood warnings. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued red alerts for Noida, Ghaziabad, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and specific districts in Haryana, including Jind and Hisar. Gurgaon has been issued an orange alert, prompting schools to switch to online classes and offices to adopt work-from-home arrangements. Meanwhile, Punjab is experiencing one of its worst flood situations in decades - with the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi rivers overflowing and causing widespread devastation. Reportedly, flooding has claimed 29 lives in Punjab and impacted over 2.56 lakh people while damaging over 94,000 hectares of crop area. As the situation grows critical a variety of underlying socio-legal issues are surfaced. This flooding in North India is a complex issue resulting from a combination of meteorological events and human driven factors such as unmanaged urbanisation and ...