Looking at the changing pattern of climate and its effect especially frequent cloudbursts and glacial lake bursts followed by dangerous landslides, it has become necessary for the governments both at the States and in the Centre to take immediate steps to contain the damage and also go for long term planning to reverse adverse climatic changes affecting life in Himalayan region.
It is good that Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called for consultation with experts to see what can be done to mitigate the aforesaid risks and dangers but what is important is to act fast as weather vagaries are proving costly with each passing day. Within a week’s time, J&K has seen three major catastrophes, one at Kishtwar’s Chashoti village and the others in Kathua district’s Jodh Ghati and Janglote areas wherein cloudbursts followed by landslides have killed nearly 70 people and injured nearly 100, with several still missing.
As CM has hinted to form a team of experts by his government to safeguard the fragile ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir, it is imperative that the decision in this regard should be taken at the earliest to stop more damage in the coming time. The damage caused by cloudbursts across the northern Indian belt this monsoon is so colossal that Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has offered condolences over these flood tragedies and expressed his hope for the swift rescue and relief operations.
Reportedly, the remarks come against the backdrop of a massive cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Kishtwar district, which has resulted in the death of at least 60 people so far. Omar Abdullah should take this issue very seriously and act in the direction of mitigating this ever increasing problem. For achieving rational results, he should also join hands with the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand because all these states are standing on the same pedestal as far as natural calamities like cloudbursts and glacial lake bursts are concerned.
The need of the hour is to give top priority to this issue and do whatever is possible so that such calamities should be stopped from happening and in case these things struck any region, the rescue and relief operations should be failsafe to ensure minimum damage of life and property. As these calamities have become quite common, the people at helm have no time to waste and therefore the work on mitigating these problems should be started as soon as possible.
