Any human civilization works on the principle of foreseeing the problems of future so that corrective action can be taken today. And, to see what the mysterious future has in store for us, we have to rely on the past data.
But, what if, the understanding of past data itself changes dramatically? The same seems to be happening to the Centre’s much ambitious inter-linking of rivers project. A study by academicians from IIT Bombay and IIT Madras has shown evidence that difference in average rainfall in separate parts of India was actually decreasing in the past more than 50 years. This is exactly the opposite of the popular notion across the world that wet areas get more rainfall and dry areas get less rainfall, resulting in increasing divide in terms of water.
At present, rainfall and water availability in India varies significantly from one part to another and hence the need for river inter-linking was felt. But, if the past as evidenced by the IIT study holds a mirror to the future, then it is obvious that rainfall will tend to be more and more uniform across the country, which shows water availability too will be more uniform than today. This attacks the idea of river inter-linking at its core.
