CLIMATE CARE - NORTHEAST INDIA

MONOJ GOGOI  Black lentil is one of the major crops that farmers grow in the alluvial soils of Majuli, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji for additional income support and also to compensate if their main cultivation - the sali rice (plant in summer and harvest in winter) fails either due to flood or other causes. But, this harvesting season, most farmers are not harvesting black lentils as no pod found in the plants and cows are freed to eat the plants as the plants are of no use without pods.                                                                                   Photos from Majuli Ananta Hazarika of Garamur, Majuli who also works as temporary worker in district agriculture office told that it was surprising that the farmers in the entire Majuli district were highly affected by the failure of black lentil crop. In distress, farmers grazed cows in the fields of black lentils. Such information poured from all corners of the district, he added. Raj Kumar Chandi from Dhunaguri area of Lak

MONOJ GOGOI This is one of the biggest questions dwindle in the minds of people affected by extreme climate change induced events across the world now. People in many parts of the world have been experiencing more and more frequent and extreme disasters which led the people to think what wrong did they do or who is responsible for this.  Affected people become more aware of the causes of their sufferings. It's climate change, that's too anthropogenic.  Climate scientists repeatedly warn the world leaders to take action to curb emissions of GreenHouse Gases (GHGs) which trap the atmospheric heat but no major action has been taken till now. No doubt, the countries agreed on the warnings and findings and trying to go ahead with plans of actions of their own. No country rigidly obliges to the resolutions taken in the international climate summits whether it is in Paris (Paris Agreement) - 2015 or the recent Glasgow summit of 2021. Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Ch

  MONOJ GOGOI Photos by the staff of People's Action for Development (PAD)  Assam has been reeling under severe to extreme floods for last one week. Out of total 35 districts in the state, 33 districts have been facing floods in various intensities, affecting a population of 42,28,157 in total till Sunday. The death toll, due to floods and erosion, rose to 73. The major rivers in the state were still flowing above the danger levels. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) still warned large excess rainfall for next 48 hours in the state. Many flood victims said that this was an unprecedented flood and never experienced in their lifetimes. Some said their areas faced inundated for the first time and never occurred flood there earlier.   This year’s catastrophic floods brought untold miseries to millions in state by submerging large swathe of land including houses, cultivable lands, standing crops, affecting livestock, disrupting road communications (as roads submerged and wa

  MONOJ GOGOI Many low-lying paddy tracts, suitable for bau (deep water rice) rice cultivation, will remain barren in next harvesting season in several places of Upper Assam, particularly in the districts of Dhemaji, Lakhimapur and Majuli. Farmers, owned low-lying paddy fields, couldn’t sow bau rice seeds on time (sowing season is spring) as it was rained heavily. Almost all tracts, used to grow bau rice, had been submerged and water-logging occurred. According to local people, heavy precipitation, much earlier than the usual rainy period, occurred for weeks in the region and the adjacent hills of Arunachal Pradesh. The rain water and the inflated water from the rivers   created water logging and submergence in those paddy fields. The water regime of these areas will, possibly, remain unchanged till September. The entire planting season would be over. Nripen Medhi, a senior secondary school teacher, of Jalbhari village in Dhakuakhana of Lakhimapur district told that most people i

  MONOJ GOGOI North East Affected-Area Development Society (NEADS), a Jorhat based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) today distributed 5 country boats in 5 flood affected villages under Kamalabari revenue circle in Majuli district.  Hemanta Phukan, the project coordinator of NEADS' “Strengthening Resilience: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change in Flood-Affected Areas of Assam through Multi-Sectoral Prevention and Adaptation Mechanisms and Advocacy” project informed that the boats had been distributed to 5 villages viz. Dakhinpat Kumar Gaon, Kaniajan, Nam sonowal, Botiamari and Alimur Bamungaon - worst affected by the Brahmaputra flood. He also informed that the boats had been distributed in the advent of the monsoon season for community use and management. Assam experiences massive floods each year due to the inflated water of the Brahmaputra and it’s tributaries. The Northeast Region is also known for high rainfall. Floods devastates road communication along with othe

  MONOJ GOGOI Dom Phillips, a veteran journalist who had been contributing for The Guardian and also for The New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times, has been missing from Amazon rainforest from last Sunday.  According to various news sources, he was last seen with his colleague Bruno pereira on last Sunday in Javari region in the state of Amazonas of Brazil bordering Peru. Phillips has been writing for The Guardian for more than 15 years from Amazon and he was working on a book on environment from Amazon. He has been missing with Pereira, an Brazilian expert on indigenous communities, from a place near Atalaia do Norte town. Search operation has been going on to find out both of them. Relatives and people known to him raised serious concern over his missing and also virulently criticized Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro government that journalists were not safe, who report from Amazon, under his regime. Tweets go like this: (Screenshots from Twitter) 

MONOJ GOGOI NOMITA BILUNG Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Soceity Organisations (CSOs), educational institutions and the district administrations observed the World Environment Day today in various places of the  Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Majuli districts. According to sources, Peoples Action for Development (PAD), a Gogamukh based NGO organised the WED at Bahgarha Pathar, a village which comes under the NGO’s  “ Strengthening Resilience: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change in Flood-Affected Areas of Assam through Multi-Sectoral Prevention and Adaptation Mechanisms and Advocacy” project. This, theTerre des Hommes, a Germany-based organization supported, project includes 10 most hazard prone villages in the area under Bihpuria Revenue Circle in Lakhimpur district. Although PAD organised the WED in Bahgarha Pathar, youth, children, women and men from the other project villages (also from non-project villages) reached the observation place to participate the WED. (

  MONOJ GOGOI Severe sandstorms become a major cause of disruption in normal life in several Middle East countries including Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The sandstorms have compelled the authorities to close the schools, offices and airports in many parts. Heavy amount of dust in the wind causes low visibility and difficulty arises in driving motor vehicles also. People in thousands are facing respiratory problems for inhaling polluted air and immediately admitted in to hospitals. Although exact causes of the sandstorms are still unknown but massive deforestation and climate change can be attributed at this time.

A report of Christian Aid reveals drought is a present danger to some of the poorest people in the world and it threatens their lives and livelihoods, from Harare in Zimbabwe to London and the South East.     In a recent press release on the report the organization says without action to cut emissions and better management of freshwater resources, Christian Aid warns the toll will be felt acutely by the poor. Christian Aid is calling for and an international fund to pay for climate caused loss and damage.  The report is supported by polling that shows UK public believe that rich countries should pay to mitigate the impact of drought (36%) while almost half (49%) of adults are now concerned about the impact of drought on people in the UK.  As a heatwave heads to the UK, and Indian cities battle with record temperatures, a new report from Christian Aid highlights how the climate crisis is increasing the severity of drought in ten of the world’s major cities and demands an internati

MONOJ GOGOI  Several parts of India have been undergoing severe heatwaves since April and this year April becomes hottest April after eight decades. News reports, national and international, claim that more than 25 people have died so far due to high atmospheric temperatures.  On the one hand mercury level is going up and simultaneously power cuts become a major issue particularly in northern and western states of the country. The cause of the disruption in supply of electricity is identified as limited coal storage in coal-based thermal power plants. In the last two years power consumption was relatively lower in the country due to the lockdowns imposed understanding the gravity of Covid-19 situations. But for this year the government did not pay much attention this issue and some issues arose in grids too. But the point is to be speculated here is that the combustion of fossil fuels, coal and gas, emit immense amount of Green House Gases to atmosphere which contributes in increasing

MONOJ GOGOI The fire that broke out at a massive landfill in Bhalswa in North Delhi on Tuesday (26th April) raises several pertinent questions. Eruption of small fires in such garbage dumping areas were common as local people reported but this type of massive blazing was rare. The size of the dumping ground was about 36 acres and mountainous and the fire tenders were struggling for three days to douse it.  But why it’s started to happen? In the last 30 days four landfill fires occurred – on March 28 at Ghazipur, April 10 at Ghazipur and again on April 20 at Ghazipur; but this time it occurred in Bhalswa of North Delhi on Tuesday. As mentioned in the previous write-up, the incidents of fire have been increasing. Climate change impacts worldwide can be attributed as one of the primary causes. The atmospheric temperature was around 42C on Tuesday. The methane gas is very vulnerable for ignition, in such dumping yards the rotten garbage emits methane in high rate. Mismanagement of g

MONOJ GOGOI   Wildfire is a very major natural disaster in many parts of the world, including some parts in Australia, the United States of America, Brazil or Peru etc. In many countries, fire was not considered seriously or more devastating than other hazards like flood and erosion, cyclone, storm, earthquake, drought, landslide etc. But now, wildfires or other fires are becoming more focal issues in some countries where such incidents were not taken care of with much attention.   In a speech to the Chief Ministers, today, on April 27th, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tells towards the end of his speech that temperature is soaring in many parts of India drastically and much earlier than the normal period. He states that incidents of wildfires or fires in buildings, residential areas and hospitals are increasing rapidly increasing. Modi warns the Chief Ministers fire hazards may increase fatalities and create catastrophes. Hospital authourities should be more careful and

Thawing permafrost is roiling the Arctic landscape, driven by a hidden world of changes beneath the surface as the climate warms Permafrost and ice wedges have built up over millennia in the Arctic. When they thaw, they destabilize the surrounding landscape. Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Mark J. Lara , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Across the Arctic, strange things are happening to the landscape. Massive lakes, several square miles in size, have disappeared in the span of a few days. Hillsides slump. Ice-rich ground collapses, leaving the landscape wavy where it once was flat, and in some locations creating vast fields of large, sunken polygons. It’s evidence that permafrost, the long-frozen soil below the surface, is thawing. That’s bad news for the communities built above it – and for the global climate. As an ecologist , I study these dynamic landscape interactions and have been document