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 dam releases. The disastrous event disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, exposing deep-seated social inequalities and migration. The issue highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of environmental and social factors to develop sustainable solutions and reduce the risk of future flooding. 

Facets like lack of legal enforcement and fragmented governance contribute to the problem of dangerous development to continue unchecked. Effective governance and legal frameworks are crucial in mitigating the impact of such disasters on marginalized communities. For instance, in 1975, the Central government circulated a model draft bill for flood plain zoning to all states to regulate construction in flood-prone areas. However, many states have not passed the legislation due to political and social resistance over high population density. As a result, illegal encroachments on riverbeds and floodplains have reached "alarming dimensions” with the approval or acquiescence of government authorities, directly contributing to flood damages.

Flooding in India can be prevented through a combination of engineering, administrative, and legal reforms. While extensive government reports have outlined these changes for decades, legal and policy-level reforms have often been resisted or not strictly enforced. The law should provide a strong basis for evicting illegal settlements in floodplains and penalising authorities that have permitted such encroachments. The most crucial legal change is empowering existing laws to prevent unchecked development in flood-prone areas, combined with transparent and effective inter-agency coordination. 

Until next time

Signing off, 

Levishka Khurana