Editorial: Stay Longer With Seasonal Concerns

The monsoon has been severe in the Northeast, where Assam is wading through the worst flood in a decade, even as North India is staring at a drought with rains having been 60% in the deficit thus far this season. Concerned officials and the government insist that it is too early to ring the drought alarm for North India, but should the rains fail, so will agriculture. But what will eventually get the Delhi media buzzing will be the power cuts that become routine once the hydel projects find no hydro power to supply the metro cities and the industries.  Agriculture and farmer woes will receive the token reference, but focus of a failed monsoon and hotter and longer summer will be urban. That said, should the season continue playing in extremes, at least it will make news, some of which might even be insightful and detailed. In these times of climate change, it is important the media reports more on climate patterns. This is important for India because the impact of climate change will be compounded by the over-exploitation of natural resources which has already taken place.
Take for example, the Assam floods. One is told that it is the worst in a decade, but it is uncertain whether the rainfall has been the heaviest in 10 years. The State is also now realising the ineffectiveness of its dyke-building exercise to combat floods. These embankments are now crumbling away and unleashing heavier damage than what a more gradual rise in water levels would have claimed. Then there is also the toying with nature aspect in which the embankments end up raising the river-bed by keeping silt trapped and settled in the river, and also robbing the flood plains of their usual quota of alluvial silt which have made them so fertile. Assam is now talking of bringing in interdisciplinary experts to help the State understand Brahmaputra better. They would also be well advised to invest in reliable advance warning systems instead of trying to fight the river. It should also look into the factors which could be contributing to more intensive floods of late. And this is something [the intensity, not the flooding] that even Sikkim could do well to look into in more detail. The monsoon has been average at best for Sikkim this season. Surface run-off has consistently increased in the recent past much to the chagrin of farmers living around or below the urban slopes. Even a strong drizzle has the jhoras around Gangtok running big and roads turning into rapids. Most of the rainfall that the Gangtok hill receives nowadays follows the quickest course to empty into the Rani Khola. Gangtokians might not notice it, but the few farmers who still hold on to paddy terraces below town are feeling it. The barely month-old monsoon in Sikkim [the rains officially arrive on 01 June here and were a week late this year], has been on average, 32% higher than normal for the period between 01 June to 04 July. Speak to the farmers around the Capital and they will counter that the rains have not been that good this year. For reference they will point out some of the terraces in their land holdings which are still dry even though paddy planting season is already on the wane. Asad ko Pandra Gatey [the 15th day of the month of Asar as per Vikram Sambad calendar], the date traditionally held as ideal for planting paddy is already past and a major reason contributing to the paddy fields not being watered enough is because the week ending 04 July, during which the said date fell, was among the driest in East Sikkim with only 66 mm rain having fallen this week against the mean average of 145.5 mm for this week during normal monsoons. The 54% deficit of one week wiped out the extras of the preceding weeks primarily because water did not percolate enough, it just emptied into drains and out into Rani Khola.
Farmers here will also inform those interested that the village springs which used to start flowing with the first rains and remain in strength at least a month into winters, are now spewing water in fits and starts – flowing big when it rains and drying up if it does not rain for even two days.  This is not because of climate change, it is because of human disruption of the catchment areas. This might hold true for rural Sikkim as well, which is why the spring rejuvenation programme underway in the State needs to be guaranteed effective monitoring and flawless delivery. It will be through efforts like this that Sikkim will cushion the more damaging effects of urbanisation and also the impact of climate change. Conservation is more important now.