Assam Flood and Its Far-reaching Ramifications

Anurag Borthakur

(The writer can be reached at anuragborthakur@yahoo.com)

As the apparition of flood ruthlessly lashes vast swathes of Assam, it is yet another parade of blatant obliteration, dismantling whatever little semblance of menschiness the dogged populace managed to stitch together in the face of inexorable adversity. The situation continues to remain grim with no tangible solution in sight. It’s an unfortunate situation for one simple reason that occurrence of flood in Assam is a perennial phenomenon and it lays bare our utter lack of preparedness and a flippant comportment to effectively cope with the situation. The sheer enormity of the current bout of flood has tousled 4.5 million people residing in various parts of Assam, their lives thrown off gear in numerous ways. So many people have been pushed to a life of perpetual poverty, daunted and exasperated by this vicious cycle that they try so hard to extricate themselves from. Such pernicious episode of flooding brings with it a litany of encumbrances which menacingly eviscerate the affected people in ways that they meekly surrender to the inevitability of the crisis. Scores of people are rendered homeless, their fragility further compounded by an increasing susceptibility to various infectious diseases that follows such a crisis. Agriculture has been persistently assailed by recurrent floods destroying standing crops, decreasing the fertility of the soil and also resulting in soil erosion. This is a huge blow to the economic stability of the farmers, whose livelihoods largely depend on agricultural activities. Animal husbandry is usually the buffer that has been effective in alleviating the economic shocks that farmers are prone to in the event of large-scale crop failure. The tyranny of this flood has been so sepulchral and unsparing that livestock has been hugely hit and has led to deaths of a large number of animals. This has come as a double whammy for the farming community in one of the hardest-hit flood situations that Assam has ever experienced.

The damage wrought by this flood to the Kagiranga National Park has been so humongous and damaging that it is going to take us a long time to recover completely from the situation. According to officials data, a total of 187 animals, including 15 one-horned rhinos, 3 elephants and over 300 deer have perished in this ruthless inundation. These numbers are significant and dismaying enough to make everyone sit up and take serious notice. Veterinarians have been scrambled to aid in the rescue efforts but given the scale of damage inflicted by this deluge, it is going to take a lot of elbow grease to get anywhere around to containing the situation. Both medical and veterinary camps have been organized in several flood-affected places to ensure that proper mechanisms are in place to stymie the occurrence of disease outbreak. The Indian army has been steadfast in performing evacuation and rehabilitation programmes. They have been instrumental in getting medical camps organized in many flood-affected areas. In some districts, boat clinics are also being used to provide much needed medical aid to the flood-affected people. In places like Goroimari, in close vicinity to the Orang National Park, such boat camps have become an instant hit and a throng of people have visited these boat clinics to get medical aid. Boats are also being used to organize veterinary camps, particularly in areas that have been totally inaccessible via roads. There is a heightened need to keep an eye out for any outbreak of infectious diseases as the given situations are now highly conducive to rapid spread of diseases. The veterinarians from across the State have been stretched thin to cover the large tracts of land that remain submerged in water and provide necessary aid to the people in need. The paucity of veterinarians has been accentuated by the tearing hurry to engage sufficient manpower at different places in this time of crisis. There is a need for greater preparedness apropos the timely evacuation, proper rehabilitation, and access to food, clothing and medicines for flood affected people.

The situation is very grave and it requires much greater attention and awareness at a national level to surmount the crisis. The national media coverage has been largely inadequate and leaves much to be desired. There is a need to make the required noises to get our concerns heard. Social media should be extensively used to highlight the plight of people enduring prolonged periods of inundation. Contributions made to the chief minister relief fund would help a great deal to bring the situation under control. A collective approach and a concerted effort both on the part of government and the general public would go a long way in ameliorating the crippling situation of flood that Assam is currently confronted with.