Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Devastating floods hit Upper Assam this July. Rain was not the only culprit. Experts gathered at Dibrugarh University on Friday to dissect why the disaster turned so severe. The Centre for Atmospheric Studies hosted the session to map out risks. Kalyan Bhuyan moderated the talk. Partha Jyoti Das set the agenda during his keynote address.
The list of man-made and natural triggers is long. It includes mining, deforestation, and shifting cultivation. Sedimentation and riverbed mining choked the waterways. Drainage systems failed. Barriers like dams, bridges, and roads blocked the natural flow. Professor Das highlighted the need for better forecasting and early warning systems. He pointed to the Brahmaputra drainage congestion and backflow as major factors. Coal mining sites held too much water.
Upstream weather played a huge role. Heavy rain pounded Nagaland. Districts like Mokokchung, Mon, Tuensang, and Longleng saw extreme deluges. Mokokchung recorded over 400 mm of rain between July 18 and 20. Jogendra Nath Sarma shifted the focus to the Dikhow river basin. He argued that the river's physical shape matters more than discharge numbers alone.
Sarma identified a sharp meander near Chantak that creates instability. The river course spans 10 km, but the gap across the bend is only 3.5 km. During normal conditions, water stays on track. Violent surges change everything. "When a large volume of water and sediment is suddenly forced through the system, the river may seek a shorter route, cutting across the meander and carrying floodwaters towards areas that would otherwise remain outside its immediate course." The river bed is rising across the floodplains. Future disaster plans must account for these landscape shifts.
Comments