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The floods in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra were, without doubt, aggravated by short-sighted development that ignored the consequence of exploiting the Western Ghats in the manner this has happened and the poor urban planning that followed. But, saying that the floods have nothing to do with climate change, as environment minister Prakash Javadekar has done, is nothing short of climate denialism. In fact, it flies in the face of research on climate change impact on rainfall in the region.
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As The Economic Times reports, The Council on Energy, Environment and Water estimates that if emissions continue to be high, the probability of once-in-a-century flood for a city like Kolkata would increase by 1,000 times by 2050. IMD data shows that between 1951 and 2010, the annual and seasonal mean temperatures in all six of the states of the Western Ghats—Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala—had increased significantly, and all these states have ignored the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil committee on the conservation of the Ghats.
As per a 2017 study, India had the second-largest number of deaths linked to extreme weather events—floods, heatwaves, etc. A paper published in Nature Climate Change estimates up to 60,000 extra deaths annually by 2030—and 260,000 by 2100—if climate change continues unabated. South Asia will be the worst hit region by the end of the century. Ostrich-like evasion on climate change—worse, climate change denialism—is not going to help. The government, and the green ministry, must get its act together if mitigation steps are to be taken with an eye on avoiding the disasters that are becoming increasingly frequent in these states.