PANAJI
The State of Goa has been witnessing the worst floods since last year and with non-stop rains in most parts of the State, similar crises have occurred this year too. Heavy rains are taking Goa by storm and there are flood-like situations in several parts of the State. Selaulim dam is overflowing; waters from Tillari dam have been released, rivers Chapora, Bailpar, Tillari, Mhadai, Kushavati and Sal are all flooded and villages on the banks of these rivers are put on alert.Pointing out these incessant and unpredictable rains, Dr Ramesh Kumar, former scientist at National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) stated, “We have had almost 22 months of continuous rainfall. The northern limit of the monsoon was stationary at Karwar for about 10 days (31 May - 9 June) and the monsoon came to Goa only on June 10 this year (2022). Usually, it is supposed to come by June 5-6, climatologically. So, the monsoon over the State set in only on June 10. During the initial days, especially in June, there was hardly any rainfall over the different stations and the State experienced a deficit of 44%.”
The State is witnessing floods with the lightest showers. Cities and towns are going underwater. Reasoning out Dr Ramesh Kumar shares, “Even though the monsoon rainfall falls from June 1 till September 30 (122 days), some days it rains heavily. We call it active monsoon days. Other days, we have weak monsoon or break-in monsoon conditions. This happens due to Ocean Atmospheric Phenomenon.”
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has announced orange and red alerts and sent out caution notices to fishermen asking them to not venture into deep seas. The question is why places get flooded within minutes of rain which was not so a few years ago. “Nowadays, we have extreme rainfall or intense rainfall events (when rainfall is more than 100 mm or even more in one day or even few hours). These are basically because of a phenomenon called Atmospheric Rivers. The extreme rainfall events or intense rainfall events have been increasing in the past several years over the State of Goa has been a painful fact, which could be attributed to the climate change positively,” feels the scientist.
The extreme rainfall events in such a short time and the land use land change pattern of the different parts of the State have really made such a scenario. The unplanned development of ecologically sensitive areas also has put pressure on Goa, according to Dr Ramesh Kumar.
