Flood havoc in A.P.

THE HEAVY TOLL of lives taken by the unprecedented rain which has devastated Guntur, Nandyal and other towns in Andhra Pradesh has focussed attention on the utter helplessness to which ``depressions in the Bay'' could reduce the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. The heavy downpour of as much as 24 cm recorded in a day even in Hyderabad which is not a coastal city is a fearsome illustration of the dreadful agony brought about suddenly by the heavy loss of lives and the havoc caused to highways, telecommunications and power transmission. It is, therefore, the duty of not only Governments but also other welfare agencies to rush to the aid of the stricken people of Andhra Pradesh. High priority should also be given to the restoration of road and rail traffic which has been wrecked by the floods.

Depression in the Bay has been a feature of the two monsoons - South West and North East - which the country is always looking forward to for sustaining its farm output as well as the badly needed relief they could provide to drought-affected regions. But its impact as well as its direction could both be unpredictable. There have been instances of its coming to life suddenly and moving with a ferocity to cause unprecedented destruction in spite of the accuracy which has now become possible for rain forecasting. Even when the Meteorological Department gives warnings about stormy weather conditions and cyclones well in time to dissuade them from going to sea, they are often not heeded because of the fishermen having to depend solely on the fish catch for their living. Such disregard has often resulted in their either being set adrift on rough seas or getting drowned. It appears that while it is now possible for the meteorologists to make accurate forecasts of depressions, their comprehension of how they are formed and developed is still far from being complete.

If the behaviour of depressions in the Bay remains unpredictable, it could partly be due to such incompleteness of what is so far known. However, meteorological forecasts of depressions are now generally confirmed by the arrival of heavy rain in the coastal areas. But depressions often remain stationary without giving any indication of the direction in which they might be moving. There have been instances of their changing direction and veering off from coastal Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh and then to West Bengal and finally pounding Bangladesh to take a deadly toll of lives.

Since much of the misery brought about by depressions in the Bay results from the heavy flooding of rivers apart from the damage they cause to roads and rail tracks, preventive action taken for mitigating it concentrates on the building of embankments to regulate the flow of rivers in spate. While this has for long been regarded as the only way of controlling the rush of river waters after heavy rain, hydrologists are now not quite sure that the structures would really be an unmixed blessing. They have cautioned that there is a possibility of such structures altering the ecology of the delta, disrupting the fisheries and draining the wetlands. These warnings about ecological damage cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, the construction of new and the strengthening of existing embankments alone could protect crops from the flooding of rivers after heavy rain. The other aspect of flooding which has bewildered ecologists is the likelihood of rivers changing their course and this is accentuated when their banks are breached. Though flood control measures bring about higher crop yields, they are also known to have reduced the opportunities for catching fish in lakes. While these hydrological aspects have to be given due importance, priority will have to be given to mitigating human suffering caused by heavy rain and floods.

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