Floods in India and Its Control Essay

Countries irrigated by an adequate river system are in many ways blessed. These rivers non only help agriculture, but they provide a cheap and efficient transport system for the development of internal trade. The saying goesland divides, seas unite. be billets body of waterways bring also a good deal of misery to the good deal by causing devastating seasonal floods In India, for example, the sub-Himalayan regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Assam are tough flooded by the rivers of the Gengetic basin and the Brahmaputra, almost every rainy season.It brings untold(prenominal) sufferings to the great deal of these low-lying plains. Millions are rendered homeless men and cattle overhaul in large numbers the damage to property including standing crops is incalculable. Besides, floods guess the health of the local anestheticity and increase the incidence of cholera, typhoid and new(prenominal) water-borne diseases. In 1922 and 1998 flood in North Bengal left a trail of devastation, fundamentally in Malda, Murshidabad areas. Floods are caused by an excessive flow of water in rivers during the rainy seasons, due mainly to torrential rain in catchment areas.This may be due to two natural causes. First, the melting of ice in glacier on the mountains may thus supply a river with volumes of water much in excess of its containing and carrying capacity. Secondly, heavy rains on the mountains cause an excess of water supply. In either case, the excess water overflows the embankments and submerges the low-lying plains. Bursting of dams and also connect in protective embankments lead to inundation. This causes large-scale deforestation. As for example, in the Terai regions during the war, floods destroyed the natural embankments of a river.Occasionally earthquakes, by changing the course of a river, or by raising its basin or choking and silting the river bottom cause flood Another contributory cause is the social structure of railway line bridges witho ut leaving provision for the natural outflow of flood-water. Of course, floods in an unpolished country work often been looked upon as a blessing in disguise. Floods leave behind on the submerged areas a rich alluvial or silt-deposit, which greatly increases the fertility of the soil.This soil on either side of the Nile owes its fertility to the annual flooding of the area, which submerges large regions, even after the construction of Aswan Dam in Egypt. Nehru used to saygive unto the river what naturally belongs to her, i. e. homesteads should not be built on riversides or on temporary black lands. That is a sure preventive measure, better than steps to go after-effects. work force make believe tried from the earliest times to build protective embankments against the incidence of floods. Ordinarily these can be made comfortablely strong to resist the usual type of floods.A system of canals to irrigate the low-lying plains affords spacious escape route for the excess water ca used by a habitual rainfall. But these embankments should have to be maintained properly. Modern river engineering and hydro-dynamics, however, have led to a fundamental change in the principle. It is now gain that effective control of flood should begin at the source. Flood control, therefore, in these days has moved up swarm. This includes the building of adequate reservoirs in the head stream area and the application of the principle of multipurpose river control.The building of a sufficient number of reservoirs is a long-drawn and costly process. Public sentiment may not take kindly to it for it necessarily causes large-scale displacement of population as has been noticed in the Narmada Banchao movement of Sm. Patakar. For taming the turbulent Damodar, the age-long river of sorrow, by constructing the Tilaya, Mython and other dams across her, many Bihar villagers had to be shifted, and this was not liked by the local population. The future, no doubt, belongs to successful work ing of multi-purpose schemes.So petty objections, raised by individual or local interest, must give way onward the larger needs of the people. In recent years, the rainy season has brought heavy floods all along the sub-Himalayan plains. The overflow of the tributaries of the Ganges and the Bramhaputra has caused untold sufferings to the people of these localities. Embankments have been broken, bridges have been washed away villages have been waterlogged, cutting rack up all communications for days together.The utmost damage has been caused to the towns and villages of Assam by the Brahmaputra floods. The authorities must put up protective embankments help the easy drainage of water by removing artificial obstructions, and by adopting local remedies for particular regions. It has been justly said, Rivers that overtop their banks and flood the adjacent lowlands offer a challenge to the people who must be ready to protect their fields from inundation.