22-June-2022

Floods in Assam are an annually recurring tragedy. This year, the floods in the state have claimed 88 lives so far. Nearly 55 lakh people have been affected in 32 of the 36 districts of the state. Over two lakh people are in relief shelters.

Floods have submerged 18% of the Kaziranga National Park. One animal has drowned while four others have been run over by speeding vehicles while crossing the highway towards its southern boundary. As I write this, the Assam floods tragedy continues to unfold, for another year.

This petition was started in April 2020 but remains relevant today.

.......................

23 April 2020

Almost 95% of the Kaziranga National Park (An UNESCO World Heritage site) was  underwater in mid-July.

More than 109 people have been killed and nearly 70 lakh people have been affected and forced to leave their homes.
More than 150 wild animals, including at least 14 rare One-Horned Rhinoceros (which are only found in north-east India) including 5 Wild Buffaloes, 8 Wild Boars, 2 Swamp Deers, 25 Hog Deers have died with thousands of small species of fauna. Only this year.

These all has happened when Assam was suffering from the consequences of Oil Well Blowout at Baghjan, Tinsukia, due to the negligence of maintenance of that oil well.

The devastating Assam floods has become a story of every year putting the lives of people and animals at risk. Destroying infrastructures and causing loss of hundreds of crores of money. But, it's not just about the money. It's about the lives of people living there.

Why such Destructive and devastating floods happen every year?
•Actually, floods are a part of Kaziranga's Ecosystem. The floods were bringing sediments with them, which makes the soil more fertile. And the animals were just moving to the higher landscape to protect themselves. Those were the traditional floods which were worshipped by the local people.
• But, since last 4-6 years, the floods got more intensive and disastrous due to various reasons like Climate Change, massive Deforestation in catchment areas, Encroachments in flood plains, failure of Embankments, lack of flood controlling measures, etc. and the animals get drowned. These factors make the floods more worse every passing year.
•"Climate Change models too predict that the floods will become increasingly devastating with each year."

As the GHG emissions are rising day by day, making the planet hotter. And due to the rising global temperature, our Himalayan glaciers are melting at a faster rate. This causes the Brahmaputra river flow with much higher speed in the monsoons. And causing such floods...

The recent Covid19 outbreak even worsen this situation putting people at risk of infection. And the large number of affected people are Indigenous/Forest Dwellers or Adivasis.

But, the Poachers are using this vulnerable situation as a Golden opportunity to kill the flood affected Rhinos and Asian Elephants to earn profit. Though many are killed due to road accidents while trying to escape the flood affected region. 

So, as cited above the CO2(GHG) emissions causes Global Warming, Global Warming causes Climate Change, and Climate Change forces the Brahmaputra river to flow with much higher speed causing destructive floods.
So, these Floods are not Natural. They are caused by our emissions.
And it's in our hands that we can avoid these types of destructive floods by cutting down our Carbon Emissions and urging the Government and authorities to take bold steps forward to reduce emissions and achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2030. 

And if we are not able to reduce our emissions early as possible, then there could be more Intense floods, droughts, sea level will rise and the Climate get worse each day.

And we can't afford that our children will be facing such issues throughout their life in future. 

But, the problem is that the mainstream media is not covering a lot about this issue. And our government is hardly taking action.

DEMANDS

1. Take actions and bold steps to reduce Carbon Emissions and achieve "Carbon Neutrality" by 2030 to avert Climate Change, which is a prime reason for these types of excessive and Disastrous flooding.

2. Immediate stop of traffic on the portion of NH-37 that passes through KNPTR,
Immediate ban on the construction of any dams on the Brahmaputra until an expert committee ascertains their ecological viability.

3. A Robust Wetlands and rivers revival and management plan drawn up and enacted by a committee of ecological and other specialists and based upon the above guidelines.

4. Action about the draft River Regulation Zone notification based on inputs from states and public comments along with faster seeking of these responses,

5. Withdrawal of the dilutionary draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2020.

The Assam floods crisis has been wreaking havoc upon our fellow citizens for 7 decades now and we have had enough now. On behalf of them and the entire country I demand immediate steps to resolve the issue for good. We will not accept piecemeal, unsound and temporary solutions anymore and urge you to deliver upon your duty to protect and serve your citizens.

Let's urge our government to tackle this situation efficiently, urgently and effectively. And take preventive measures. Because, Prevention is better than cure.