LEARNING FROM SRINAGR TRAGEDY

Bikash Choudhury

One good thing about the unprecedented flood havoc in Srinagar City and other parts of J&K State was it did not distinguish between caste & class and have & have-nots as cascading flood water from Jhelum River inundated the bungalows of ministers and top bureaucrats; those who are partially responsible for such tragedy. Mumbai city was flooded in 2005 and the Cloud burst in Uttarakhand in 2013 took a heavy toll of over twenty thousand lives. However, we did not learn any thing from such catastrophic human tragedy. Looking at natural disaster happening in the country and other parts of the World; one should infer that such disasters would now happen more frequently and with enhanced ferocity in our country and outside for which we should remain prepared as a Nation. It is true we can’t avert such tragedy from happening; however, we can attempt to minimize its impact. Union and State Govt. alone can’t meet this challenge fully or partially; it would require the might of all private and social organizations and all conscious citizens to take some preventive measures in their daily life. Natural disasters mostly happen due to imbalance in the eco-system. The size of our population itself is one of the greatest destabilizer of our eco-system and on top of it our habitual & blatant abuse of Nature makes it much more lethal. We can now expect such tragedy hit each of us tomorrow and therefore take conscious decision to deal with Nature and Natural resources as one withdraw cash from bank. That apart conscious individuals should have a charter for them to manage their personal carbon foot print—to plant or sponsor plantation of twelve trees annually, cut down personal consumption of water & energy and to educate at least one more person about conservation of nature.