It s not startling news anymore, but the United Nations has declared that 40 million Indians are at risk from rising sea levels. The UN environmental report goes further to state that in India, the residents of Mumbai and Kolkata will have the maximum exposure to coastal flooding in the future.Both the cities have faced severe floods in the past. Mumbai has waterlogging problems yearly and in 2005 the infamous flood killed over 1000 people, left tens of thousands homeless and destroyed crores worth of property. Kolkata has severe floods in 1998 and around the mid-2000s. The worst impacts of climate change will happen in the Asia-Pacific region. While Mumbai and Kolkata are the biggest cities at risk, the entire Indian coastline will be affected. The 600 kilometre distance from Goa to Mumbai is not a massive distance in a situation like this. Urbanisation leads to natural coastal systems losing out on the ability to tackle climate change events effectively. All these coastal areas have soft sedimentary coasts and sea levels rising as well as river discharge will be the biggest factors here. It is time to maximize green development to counter the effects of the past 20 years.
The Myth of ‘Unity in Diversity’
The phrase ‘Unity in Diversity’ is periodically invoked to express the spirit of post-colonial Indian nationalism. What this phrase seeks to assert is that irrespective of varied religions, ethnicities, linguistic affiliations and other such differences, India and Indians stand united. Following Ernest Renan’s argument that ‘unity [in the context of nations] is always brutally established’, the Indian narrative of ‘Unity in Diversity’ too needs to be critically scrutinised.…
