CLIMATE CARE - NORTHEAST INDIA

  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. (