Tragedy of Indian Monsoons

The Indian monsoon stories are soaked not just in rain, but also in tears and tragedy. The South West monsoon usually arrives at Kanyakumari on May 31st sweeping through the entire nation within 3 weeks and lasting for approx. 90 days, while treating Tamil Nadu like a Dalit (untouchable). And the North East monsoon aka retreating monsoon arrives in the last week October and lasts for approximately for 45 days often punishing Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (now Andhra Pradesh has been bifurcated into Andhra and Telegana). 

Soaked in tears and tragedy

Sometimes monsoons arrive on time and in full-force causing loss and damage to property and life, bringing along with it water-borne diseases that leave people suffering for months, and finally, the trauma of survival leaves families shattered for years. However, when monsoons fail to arrive, people face the brunt of drought, starvation, and their bad loans eventually push them over the edge to commit suicide. Unfortunately, the met department can never predict tears and don't count while accounting for deficit or excess.

Terrorism of another kind

How can individuals, civic agencies, and Governments prevent such tragedies has been debated in our newspapers and TV channels and are forgotten soon after. I joined the bandwagon this year launching a scathing attack on Chennai Corporation for choosing a wrong timing to widen the footpaths that has left the storm water drains clogged inundating streets after streets. 

While my fellow participants on the show pointed out the lapse on the part of Government allowing people to encroach upon lakes causing flooding thereby, creating a man-made disaster during this year's North East monsoon. Isn't this terrorism of another kind?

Humans vs. Nature

Marking territories and seizing power are both qualities of humans and nature. Sadly, humans don't seem to learn their lessons from losing to nature. 

Here is a picture taken at Velachery lake where humans have mercilessly encroached  upon the water body thereby polluting and ruining the aquatic life. A local resident tells me that Velachery lake is constantly shrinking is size like the Ozone layer. He also shared that today, a 4-lane highway that divides the lake was non-existent 15 years ago and humans began their trespassing by building temples along the banks that eventually led to massive encroachment and degradation. In the recent rains, the lake swelled up reclaiming its lost area and hitting the restart button on the encroachers. 

Hitting the restart button

Mylai Balaji Nagar in Madipakkam/Velachery faced the fury of swelled up canal inundating homes at 2 am in the morning and leaving people run for their lives. When we visited three days later, the narrow lanes still had ankle-deep water and residents were sad over lost ration cards, certificates, and identification documents. Sadly, in India being reborn is much easier than getting a government document issues, specially after a such incidents. 

No escape route

I got curious and asked one of the residents if this was also an encroached area and her response surprised me. She said that they were resettled from Mylapore slum to Velachery during the construction of the Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS). Shouldn't the Government do a proper layout rather than recreating another slum with dangerous living conditions and close proximity to water bodies?

A health disaster in waiting

While walking around the smelly neighborhood, we saw stagnated rain water everywhere reminding us of water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera and vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. With their homes besieged by rain water and their clothes and belongings soaked in mixture of sewage and rain water, they pleaded for new clothes and blankets to themselves warm and stay protected against mosquitos. 

What I have captured and shared here only represents a fraction of the tragedy of urban dwellers, but then in rural India farmers lose their homes, crops and farm animals to the monsoon pushing them deeper into poverty.

Irrespective of the monsoon cycle, this is the story across India for many years in the past, present, and future. So, do you now understand why the Indian monsoon will always be full of tragedies?

Did we just go around taking stock of the situation and lambasting civic authorities and the Government or did we spring into any action? Come back tomorrow for more updates.