Over the weekend, the torrential monsoon rains wreaked havoc in North Indian states with Himachal Pradesh being one of the worst affected. The monsoon triggered incidents of cloud bursts, flash floods, landslides and loss of life during the past three days.

The rains have also left the rivers Sutlej, Ravi, Beas and Yamuna, in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, in spate.

flood

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast predicts light to moderate rain at most places till July 10 over the states of Punjab and Haryana, apart from Chandigarh and also "heavy to heavy rainfall" at a few isolated places.

Punjab

While the hilly areas experienced complete halt of normalcy and flood like situation, normal life was also thrown out of gear in most of the cities and suburban areas due to water-logging. In the cities of Mohali, Patiala and Chandigarh, waterlogging caused heavy disruption in traffic and severe damage to several residential buildings, roads, vehicles and property. Videos, shot mostly by residents, bearing testimony to the devastation in low lying areas went viral on social media.

Haryana

The heavy rain also unleashed its fury on the state of Haryana forcing local and state authorities to issue alerts and warnings to people, especially those near the river banks and low lying areas. Reportedly, the state received 38.90 mm rainfall on July 9.

As per the ground reports and videos on social media, the cities of Panipat, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Amabala have been among the most affected with water-logged streets, stranded commuters and overflowing drains.

The overflowing rivers also caused panic among the residents, as the flow in River Yamuna crossed the danger mark of 70,000 cusecs to 84 000 cusecs on Sunday afternoon. The state irrigation officials said 1.9 lakh of water was discharged from the Hathini Kund Barrage in Yamunanagar district of Haryana.

Himachal Pradesh

Of the three states, Himachal Pradesh has been worst affected ever since the monsoon hit the state on June 24. Monsoon's fury has not stayed restricted to cancelled trains and delayed flights, but a completed halt in normalcy. The schools in the state will remain closed till July 111, while employees have been asked to work from home.

As per the information furnished by State's Emergency Operation Centre, on Sunday, three people were killed at Madholi village in Shimla district due to a landslide.

So far, 15 instances of flash floods, 1 of cloud burst and roughly 17 landslides have paralysed the infrastructure of the state. Following landslides, close to 730 roads including National Highways have also been blocked. The state has also so far, reported a loss of 45 human lives due to monsoon related incidents, apart from the loss of cattle and livestock.

Similar story, different country, same reason

It doesn't take much or long to connect the dots of unfriendly, unpredictable weather to the climate crisis. It was only last year, when large swathes of neighbouring Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon rain from mid-June to end-August. Large parts of the country were flooded and devastated with irreparable loss of life and debilitating impact on its already-crippling economy.

The Indus river burst its banks while the flash floods and landslides rendered many homeless and orphaned. This apart from the loss of food crops, livestock, health facilities and the heightened risk of epidemic following the floods.

As per a report in World Weather Attribution, scientists from Pakistan, India, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, South Africa, New Zealand, the US, and the UK, came together to analyse whether and to what extent human-caused climate changed altered the likelihood and intensity of this extreme rainfall.

The scientists used published, peer-reviewed methods to perform the event attribution study. As per the findings, climate likely increased extreme monsoon rainfall. "Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50% for the 5-day event definition," said the report. Meanwhile, any conversation pertaining climate change continues to fall on deaf citizens and political governments.

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