CLIMATE ACTIONS - 'NOW OR NEVER'

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 global warming. This has been going to be a vicious circle, ‘more hot more burning of coal, more burning of coal more warming’.

The scientists from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report last month that ‘now or never’. This means we have a very little chance to avoid climate catastrophes in recent future. We are heading towards the tipping point, but still we are ignoring. According to climate scientists the temperature of the earth is going to rise 1.5C in next five years from the period of pre-industrial era. In Conference of the Parties – 15 (CoP – 15), Paris Agreement it was a resolution that only 1.5C would be allowed to increase in 2100, if this benchmark wouldn’t be possible than it wouldn’t be more than 2.0C. But the temperature is rising alarmingly.

The COP – 26, which was held last November in Glasgow, India just committed from ‘phase out coal’ to ‘phase down coal’ towards the last minutes of the conference. All the climate events – floods, droughts, desertification, cyclones, storms, landslides, avalanches, tornadoes in various intensities and frequencies, are reminding us every time that we need to take up steps to keep the earth as liveable planet for the upcoming generations.

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Reminiscence of 1950's Assam Earthquake and Subansiri's flood

MONOJ GOGOI APR 13, 2013: It was the morning of August 15, 1950. While the entire country was celebrating the 3rd Independence Day of India, the earth shook suddenly in the northeast region. It was an earthquake at a magnitude of 8.7 in the Richter scale which created indelineable devastation at several parts of the region. In that earthquake, in a massive landslide occurred in the hills near Dulungmukh, the Subansiri, a principal north bank tributary of the Brahmaputra was entirely blocked. Due to the blockade the water level receded largely in the downstream and the river bed almost dried up. Though the people saw the landslides from the downstream, they did not know the actual reason behind the drying up of the river. The riverine people gladly became busy in fishing in the swallow stagnant water of the river. The government tried to warn the people by distributing leaflets using helicopter about the blockade of the river and the possible impending disaster, but the p...

Saving Assam's Communities: A Scientific Approach to Riverbank Erosion

MONOJ GOGOI The riverbank erosion is one of the major problems in Assam. The riparian community in the Brahmaputra basin in Assam has been bearing the brunt of erosion for decades. They lose properties, houses, homestead land and agricultural lands to erosion. The riverbank erosion, sometimes, engulfs even an entire settlement or village and thus displaces thousands of people annually in the state. According to a report, the state has already lost more than 4.27 ha of land to the erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. There is no any mantra or strategy to stop suddenly the increasing trend of the erosion but scientific studies like “Mapping riverbank erosion and assessing it's impact on socio-economy and livelihood of people in selected villages in Lakhimpur and Majuli district: A case study for sustainable policy intervention to improve disaster and climate resilience of vulnerable communities”, prepared by Partha J Das (lead author) and Arup Kr. Das (remot...

LOW YIELD OF BETEL NUTS HITS RURAL ECONOMY IN ASSAM THIS YEAR

MONOJ GOGOI It's the harvesting period of betel nut or supari (areca nut) in Assam. But the yield of betel nuts is discernibly low this year in all the districts of Assam compared to previous years. Chandan Boro, who plucks betel nuts, with Ranjit Basumatary and Raju Basumatary in this season in various villages under Gogamukh revenue circle of Dhemaji district in Assam says that in this harvesting season of betel nuts they are not getting as much works as they did in previous years. He says in the orchards where we plucked 20 quintals last year, this year's yield in the same orchard is less than 5 quintals. In many trees not even a single nut is found and in which trees nuts are there, it's comparatively very few. Ranjit Basumatary says we are roaming from village to village but the situation is the same. "We are shocked to see the drastic change in the crop yields", he adds. Biren Pegu, a betel nut grower from Goroimari are...

CLIMATE CARE - NORTHEAST INDIA

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