Of floods, clogged drains and deforestation Besieging Manipur
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Even the Gods, celestial beings and the people themselves seem to have ganged up against Manipur. Take a look at the reality. The violence which erupted on May 3, 2023 still finds no resolution. No popular Government in place, with nothing to indicate that it will come back anytime in the near future. And it is amid this all round gloom that the sky has opened up and many parts of Imphal and the valley areas are under water. Non-stop rain, with heavy downpour at times followed by a lighter drizzle for the downpour to return and it has been like this since the night of September 12. Today is September 15. That means non-stop rain has been hammering Manipur for over 72 hours. To make matters worse is the information that has just come in that a portion of the National Highway that connects Manipur to the rest of the country has just been snapped. Not that any Meitei would take the road route in the backdrop of the ‘playing with words’ exercise adopted by the militant groups that come under the SoO pact, the Kuki-Zo Council, Zomi Council and obviously the hilariously named Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi based Committee on Tribal Unity. Amid the rain, the overflowing river, the flooding of different localities, is the report that a 70 year old man has been swept away by the swirling water of Iril river and the tragedy wreaked by the flood water is chillingly real. The prospect ahead is scary. One can expect prices of essential goods to jack up, on top of Manipur yet experiencing another poor harvest when the time comes in the early part of winter-last week of November or in the early days of December. For the moneyed and well to do families, this may not mean much, but majority of the families in Manipur do not belong to the moneyed class or the salaried category. Nothing that one can do as humans in so far as the rain is concerned, but surely good planning, a sensitive people who can look beyond their own immediate needs and a Government which can look ahead, could have gone a long way in dealing with the overflowing river and the flooded roads, streets etc. The barren hills thanks to massive deforestation, the filling up of natural water reservoirs, meaning the numerous pats and other water bodies, the clogging of natural waterways such as the khongbans have all combined together to script the flooded roads and streets that one sees today. And this is not the first time for Imphal to see such devastation caused by flooding this year, having experienced it in May and June. No lessons were learnt at all, for from the moment the sky cleared up and the rain stopped, the people were back to their favourite pastime of piling up the natural waterways with plastic wastes which include plastic carry bags and used plastic bottles.
Rain, it is nature. Clogged waterways, narrowing of the different rivers flowing through Imphal, the landslides-the rain and deforestation-the ongoing stand off after the May 3, 2023 violence are all man made and all these taken together have come to script the Manipur that one sees in September this year. And it has been like this for the greater part of the time ever since Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023. Floods came and went, landslides and land sinks continued to define the Imphal-Dimapur highway and prices of all essential commodities continued to remain sky high. No wonder Manipur figured right up there on the inflation table. But what are the steps that have been taken to address the different issues besieging the State. On the one hand, fingers continue to be pointed at Delhi for failing to resolve the issue but not much thought seems to have been given to the conduct of the ‘people at the helm’ on either side of the clash divide. After President’s Rule came on February 13 this year, the guns have fallen silent. The Suspension of Operation pact was extended and the Prime Minister did visit Manipur, after more than two years of the violence erupting. In between Manipur saw false narra- tives being given a further push by some self appointed ‘watchdog’ and it is the championing of such false narratives that the agreement inked at New Delhi on the status of the National Highways was interpreted in the way one likes but the fact stands that the Union Home Ministry did talk about ‘re-opening’ the highways. If the highways were not closed then where does the question of re-opening it come at all, is the question which any sane man and woman would raise.
Rain, it is nature. Clogged waterways, narrowing of the different rivers flowing through Imphal, the landslides-the rain and deforestation-the ongoing stand off after the May 3, 2023 violence are all man made and all these taken together have come to script the Manipur that one sees in September this year. And it has been like this for the greater part of the time ever since Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023. Floods came and went, landslides and land sinks continued to define the Imphal-Dimapur highway and prices of all essential commodities continued to remain sky high. No wonder Manipur figured right up there on the inflation table. But what are the steps that have been taken to address the different issues besieging the State. On the one hand, fingers continue to be pointed at Delhi for failing to resolve the issue but not much thought seems to have been given to the conduct of the ‘people at the helm’ on either side of the clash divide. After President’s Rule came on February 13 this year, the guns have fallen silent. The Suspension of Operation pact was extended and the Prime Minister did visit Manipur, after more than two years of the violence erupting. In between Manipur saw false narra- tives being given a further push by some self appointed ‘watchdog’ and it is the championing of such false narratives that the agreement inked at New Delhi on the status of the National Highways was interpreted in the way one likes but the fact stands that the Union Home Ministry did talk about ‘re-opening’ the highways. If the highways were not closed then where does the question of re-opening it come at all, is the question which any sane man and woman would raise.